Project Phases

The Hybrid Electric Bus Project was initially planned to have four phases. Previous project plans have been modified as the project scope changed, and the project now has three phases.

Phase 1 may be considered the discovery phase where Advanced Energy and our partners learned about the school bus market and developed the guidelines for the other project phases. Much of our time in Phase 1 was spent talking with environmental groups, school bus manufacturers, district maintenance personnel, hybrid system integrators and battery researchers. This effort produced the feasibility studies and a Request for Proposals issued to school bus manufacturers. More details may be found here.

Phase 2 was the build phase. IC bus was selected to manufacture the buses and Advanced Energy worked with the Buyer’s Consortium members to secure funding. IC Bus delivered the buses to the Buyers’ Consortium members beginning in 2007. More details may be found here.

Phase 3, which is ongoing, consists of testing and monitoring the performance of the bus fleet. In addition, Advanced Energy performed substantial education and outreach activities to promote awareness of the technology. Dissemination of our project results will occur in this phase. More details may be found here.