New Electric School Buses at No or Low Cost to You

It is official, the Public School Bus Set-Aside for Small and Medium Air Districts (Public School Set-Aside) will open on March 30^th as a part of HVIP! The California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) $122 million set-aside is intended to cover nearly, if not all, of the full cost of new electric school buses for eligible applicants.

All eligible applicants in small and medium air districts are encouraged to apply when HVIP opens, using an application linked in the Public School Bus Set-Aside section at californiahvip.org/purchasers. The link to the application will become available at 10 a.m. PDT on March 30^th.

Join us May 5th for a ‘How to Participate” Workshop – see more information below!

Applicant Eligibility

All applicants in small and medium air districts must serve students at the K-12th grade level. Eligible applicants include:

• California Public School Districts
• California Public Charter Schools, as listed at https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/si/cs/
• California Joint Power Authorities (JPAs)
• California County Offices of Education (COEs) Division of State Special Schools of the California Department of Education
• Division of State Special Schools of the California Department of Education

At the time of initial funding request (Application Part A), applicants will need to identify the bus(es) they wish to scrap, but do not need to know what bus(es) they potentially want to purchase. The old school bus(es) can be any internal combustion engine using any fuel type and does not need to be the same bus type or vehicle weight class as the new bus. The following are old bus eligibility requirements:

• The bus chassis must be a 2007 model year or older. The bus chassis age is verified by the model year listed on the DMV Registration Form.
• The bus must be applicant owned. The bus cannot have a lienholder listed on the DMV Registration Form.
• The bus must have a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR) greater than 14,000 pounds
• The bus must have a current California Highway Patrol Safety Certification (CHP 292 or equivalent)
• The bus must be compliant with the California Truck and Bus Regulation in order to receive a full voucher amount.

In order to receive funds from the Public School Bus Set-Aside, applicants will select an HVIP eligible vehicle with Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) functionality.  Recipients of the new bus(es) are not required to utilize V2G. Before HVIP opens, school buses eligible for the set-aside funds will be indicated in the HVIP Eligible Vehicle Catalog.

Timeline

The Public School Bus Set-Aside has a two-step application process. Application Part A is completed and submitted directly by the eligible applicant. After review of Application Part A, the HVIP Team will determine eligibility and, if eligible, advance the applicant to Application Part B. Applicants will select a V2G-capable HVIP Eligible Vehicle then communicate with an HVIP approved dealer selling the vehicle who will submit Application Part B on behalf of the applicant in the form of a HVIP voucher request. Applicants who are selected to move on to Application Part B will be contacted directly by HVIP staff and will have 30 calendar days to submit Application Part B.

Part A submissions will begin on March 30, and during the first 90 days after that date, funds will be prioritized to applicants that are located in a Disadvantaged Community (DAC) and within a small-sized air district. At the end of the 90-day application window, the remaining funds, if any, will be allocated to requests that have been received during the 90-day window in the order described below:

1. Applicants located in small air districts but not located in DACs, then
2. If additional funds remain, requests from applicants located in medium-sized air districts and in DACs will be funded, then
3. If additional funds remain, requests from applicants located in medium-sized air districts that are not in DACs will be funded.

Following the initial 90-day window, requests are first come first served for all eligible applicants in small and medium-sized air districts, pending funding availability.

Scrappage of the old bus can occur after Terms and Conditions have been executed and must occur within 365 calendar days of new bus delivery.

How to Prepare for Application Part A

Eligible applicants who want to participate can prepare for opening day by gathering this list of information for Application Part A:

• Applicant information – name, mailing address, air district
• Old Bus(es) information –  make, model, model year, VIN, GVWR rating, engine serial number, name of DMV registered owner, CHP certification information
• Supporting documentation – Letter of Intent signed by an authorized applicant representative stating intent to participate.

Purchaser Workshop for the Public School Bus Set-Aside

Please join us at the ‘How to Participate Workshop’ at 10am PDT on May 5th. Our goal is to help as much as possible, please come with questions!

Details of the Public School Bus Set-Aside, including the UPDATED Public School Bus Set-Aside Flyer, sample Letter of Intent, list of air districts by size, DAC qualifications, applicant instructions and more will be published at www.CaliforniaHVIP.org/Purchasers on March 24th. Details are included in Appendix G: Public School Bus Set-Aside for Small and Medium Air Districts at www.CaliforniaHVIP.org/Purchasers and in the HVIP FY21-22 Implementation Manual.

Please reach out to [email protected] if you need any assistance or to subscribe to the Public School Bus Set-Aside updates.

This funding is part of CARB’s Hybrid and Zero Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP).

Posted 3/17/2022