Thanks to a federal grant, Cassopolis Public Schools now has three new electric school buses.

District Superintendent John Ritzler tells us the $1.18 million from the Environmental Protection Agency allowed the district to replace three 19-year-old diesel buses. He says if the district had just purchased new buses on its own, it would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“We had an old bus fleet, so we knew we had to do something as far as upgrading our buses,” Ritzler said. “As we were looking at options, that grant looked like it would be the most fiscally responsible way to do it if we could get the grant.”

The three electric buses all came with the needed equipment.

“The grant allowed us to buy three chargers for the three buses. They’re actually high-speed chargers so that after the morning run, picking up students and bringing them to school, we can get them recharged so they’re at capacity for the afternoon run too.”

Ritzler says the district has the option of using one of its old diesel-powered buses for long runs that might cause range anxiety with the electrics. However, the electric buses are working well for routine trips.

Ritzler says Three Rivers has some electric buses and he consulted its administration as he considered seeking the grant.

We asked if there’s concern the electric buses might not start in cold weather, and he told us some of the district’s diesel buses already have that problem. Besides, Ritzler says they use electric buses in Minnesota, a place that routinely gets colder than Michigan.