In the USA, 50 electric school buses are already in daily use. We got behind the wheel of the yellow and black Thomas Built bus called “Jouley” and are simply thrilled.
Who doesn’t know them, the black and yellow buses that transport students to schools in the USA? Whether in high school comedies or in films like Batman (when the Joker robs a bank) or in the long-running animated series “The Simpsons”, the cult mobiles play a role everywhere. And has been for decades. Now the rolling US icon is also available as a Stromer. The name: Saf-T-Liner C2 Electric Bus or just affectionately Jouley. From the outside, almost nothing reveals the difference to the conventionally fueled buses: orange paint, white roof, the folding door and two monstrous mirrors on the hood. Everything as usual. Only a small chrome-plated plaque on the front with the lettering “Jouley” and a yellow electric bolt like on the helmet of the Football Team Los Angeles Chargers unmask the e-transporter.
The drive train comes from the cooperation with the Californian company Proterra. The west coast technicians have been in the electrical business for eight years and have put more than 1,000 electric buses on the road. The battery is divided into two battery packs and has a capacity of 220 kilowatt hours. That’s enough for 138 miles / 228 kilometers. More than enough for a day tour. It is charged with up to 90 kW, then the energy storage is full again after a good two hours. It takes around 60 minutes longer at a 60 kW charging station.
Enough of the preamble. We swing behind the steering wheel of the twelve meter long vehicle. The rows of seats, on which otherwise 81 noisy schoolboys romp, are empty today. So no cheers to our bus driver like The Simpsons did when Principal Skinner once played the driver. The dashboard is basically identical to that of the traditionally powered school buses. Only the handbrake on the Jouley is a button that you pull, activate and release. The door is opened with a small lever. Instead of the fuel gauge, you see a large round instrument that shows the charge level of the battery. The rest is known: speedometer, air conditioning and air pressure.
Let’s get started. Everything seems very familiar. With a short pull, the handbrake is released and by pressing the D button we engage the first of two automatic levels. A light press on the gas pedal and the heavy vehicle starts moving. The electric motor creates up to 217 kW / 295 hp, the continuous output is 125 kW / 170 hp. We crank the large steering wheel plate and have everything in view with the two monstrous mirrors and if not, a 360-degree camera helps us when manoeuvring.
Two loudspeakers, one in the front of the bumper and one in the back, report the approaching bus at low speeds. Americans love nostalgia, so the bus sounds like the whistle of a train pulling into the station. An LED display below the analogue instruments informs the driver of the battery’s temperature and charge level.
Driving the electric school bus isn’t all that different from driving an internal combustion engine and quickly becomes second nature. The fact that all the torque is available immediately is also not a real problem. Especially since the Jouley is more of a hum and the commands of the gas pedal are not implemented very directly anyway. We feel at home. Now comes a tight curve and the proven bus driver rules also apply to the Stromer when it comes to cornering. One of them is turning in extremely late, only when you feel like you’ve overshot the curve. Works. Jouley doesn’t take long and swings confidently around the corner. When the going gets faster, the two-speed gearbox smoothly changes gears. However, you will hardly win a canon ball race, at 65 mph (105 km/h) it’s over.
We park the Saf-T-Liner C2 Electric Bus knowing we rode with the future. In the US state of Virginia, 50 joules bring students to class. If the endurance test is positive, another 1,000 will follow. And that is just the beginning.
Source: Stern
I am a 24-year-old writer and journalist who has been working in the news industry for the past two years. I write primarily about market news, so if you’re looking for insights into what’s going on in the stock market or economic indicators, you’ve come to the right place. I also dabble in writing articles on lifestyle trends and pop culture news.
