The North American Daimler Trucks subsidiary Thomas Built Buses has been selected by Dominion Energy to provide the initial fully-electric versions of school buses in Virginia.
The 50 vehicles represent the first wave of switching 1,050 of Virginia’s school buses from diesel to electrical power. The electric battery technology for the Jouley is the result of collaboration with the California-based Proterra. It involves a total power capacity of 220 kWh, as well as an estimated range of 134 miles.
The Jouley can be charged in about three hours with the optional Proterra 60 kW fast charging system, officials said, and when properly equipped, supplies power back to the power grid using vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology.
Thomas Built Buses is presently the only school bus manufacturer to offer DC fast charging architecture as standard equipment.