MDI Finds One Issue With An Electric School Bus Battery After State Urges Busses Taken Off Road
Defective busses caused power-failure crash in Winthrop
BAR HARBOR—After the Maine Department of Education’s request to park all electric school buses from Lion Electric Co. until the state can inspect them, two of the electric school buses used on Mount Desert Island have passed state police inspections. Another did not.
“The third is getting a new battery in the shop, which will be inspected upon return,” said School Superintendent Mike Zboray.
The schools on Mount Desert Island have three Lion busses. One is at Pemetic Elementary and was acquired in 2023. Two are used by MDI High School. Those were acquired in 2021 and 2022.
The worry was that busses in two Maine towns were wearing down at an alarming rate. One bus in Winthrop had a power steering failure. There were no children on board at the time, but the driver intentionally crashed the bus into a snowbank to avoid hitting other vehicles.
The busses in MDI, Winthrop, Yarmouth, and Bingham were acquired for free from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program. That program is meant to make the public school bus fleet mostly electric by 2035. The typical cost for an electric bus is $345,000.
All repairs done to MDI and Pemetic’s buses have been covered by LION.
“They have a 100,000-mile warranty. Bus 3 has 40,000 miles, bus 1 has 12,000, and the Pemetic bus is under 10,000,” Zboray said.
The trio of busses have not had any of the issues that have worried state officials, Zboray said.
According to a Lewiston Sun Journal article, “Officials with Winthrop Public Schools said the buses came with misaligned or incorrect wording on the side of the buses. Six weeks later, the windshields began to leak. After the power steering failure, district officials realized the problems were more serious than thought.
“The defects noted in the initial inspections over the summer by the Maine State Police Vehicle Inspection Unit ranged from loose body rivets, an inoperative drivers’ auxiliary fan, a power steering hose rubbing on a bracket, and a rear emergency door check that did not work properly.
“In Vinalhaven, where the school district has one Lion Electric Co. school bus, the problems have included side body damage (broken rivets) and no wheel chocks, which are blocks that prevent large vehicles from rolling when parked.”
The EPA’s latest round of school bus program funding awarded Lion $38 million this January.