Ideally, rezoning and infrastructure changes would reduce the need for school buses. We don’t have the time though, so this is a win. Hopefully production can ramp up and governments can create incentives for schools to buy these instead of dead dino powered buses.
You can offset some loss by putting solar panels on the roof. However you have to balance it properly because people forget that these things weigh 45lbs each and you need to factor the additional weight into equation.
Solar would barely make a dent with the power consumption of a bus
It would. Not if you use the full 300 mile range twice a day, but many school buses are used for two 25 mile trips per weekday and parked in the sun the rest of the day plus weekends. Cover the roof in high efficiency panels and you can get significant range.
I wouldn’t say barely. It depends on the rating of the panels and the amount of weight they have. Also if we are just using them to offset energy I don’t see why it would be an issue if you’re accounting for the additional weight and resources used by adding them to this electrical system. If you could offset the loss of operating something small on the vehicle with that small amount of production it would seem worth it as long as it doesn’t increase costs or otherwise put strain on the vehicle’s travel range.