Recommended total cost of ownership parameters for electric school buses: summary of methods and data

This reference guide is developed for those conducting the total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis of diesel and electric school buses. The report presents a landscape analysis of information related to school bus procurement, performance, and operations, and it provides recommended default specifications for key calculation parameters. The recommendations, based upon publicly available information, will increase confidence in the results of analysis undertaken to assess the economics of fleet electrification. This note outlines the scope of TCO assumptions, the methodology used to identify the range of data for each parameter, the assumptions used where data were not readily available, and the approach taken to make recommendations. The note also serves to document the rationale behind default values used in analysis conducted by WRI using open-source total cost of ownership tools.