Blue Bird Corporation, a provider of electric and low-emission school buses, announced that it has been selected to receive an $80 million grant from the US Department of Energy (DOE) to expand the company’s electric vehicle manufacturing capabilities and related workforce development efforts. The award selection is subject to final contract and funding negotiations between the DOE and Blue Bird, which could take up to 120 days to conclude.
The DOE funding is part of the US administration’s nearly $2 billion investment to convert long-standing automotive facilities to manufacturing electric vehicles and components, retain and expand good-paying manufacturing jobs, and bolster domestic supply chains.
The $80 million grant to Blue Bird is part of the Domestic Automotive Manufacturing Conversion Grants program administered by the DOE’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC).
The grant represents 50% of the total $160 million investment required to complete the conversion project. Blue Bird is one of 11 selectees, including Cummins, Blue Bird’s supply chain partner for electric vehicle powertrains.
The financial award will help Blue Bird convert a prior manufacturing site for diesel-powered motorhomes in Fort Valley, Ga., into an approximately 600,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art electric vehicle manufacturing facility. Blue Bird started manufacturing high-end, Wanderlodge-branded motorhomes at the site in 1963 based on its large, Type-D school bus designs.
The company ceased operations at the Wanderlodge site in 2019. The conversion will assist Blue Bird in increasing the production of Type-D electric school buses to meet the rising demand for clean student transportation nationwide. In addition, the converted facility will add more than 400 new, good-paying manufacturing jobs.
“There is nothing harder to a manufacturing community than to lose jobs to foreign competition and a changing industry,” said US Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “Even as our competitors invest heavily in electric vehicles, these grants ensure that our automotive industry stays competitive—and does it in the communities and with the workforce that have supported the auto industry for generations.”
Blue Bird is the only US-owned and operated school bus manufacturer in America, with nearly 2,000 zero-emission vehicles on the road today. The shift to clean student transportation helps the company sustain approximately 2,000 good-paying jobs.
Filed Under: Technology News