The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published an article about Blue Bird building a 600,000 square-foot, 400-worker factory will be built to produce electric school buses in Fort Valley, GA.
The company is getting $80 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, a grant that Blue Bird will match. The grant comes from DOE funding, totaling $1.7 billion spread among 11 sites in eight states, that’s part of the Biden administration push for sustainable energy and low emission vehicles.
The electric side of the business has been gearing up steadily. This year, Blue Bird will produce about 8,500 buses, mostly fueled by diesel and natural gas, but including more than 800 powered by electricity. The new factory will help power Blue Bird toward its production goal of 12,000 buses a year.
In January, federal officials announced grants totaling $57 million for a number of Georgia school districts to buy electric buses. So far, Blue Bird has made deliveries to only six school districts in the state.
