BorgWarner Partners with the School District of the City of Pontiac to Offer Industry-First Charging System for Buses

  • Infrastructure development utilizes Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean School Bus Programfunding
  • Marks the first EPA-funded school bus program to use BorgWarner’s proprietary sequential charging, which can support up to five dispensers per direct current fast charger (DCFC)
  • Enables vehicle-to-grid (V2G) readiness, providing a means to better optimize energy usage 

Auburn Hills, Michigan, April 28, 2023 – BorgWarner is partnering with the School District of the City of Pontiac to provide proprietary sequential charging with its direct current fast chargers (DCFC) for the district’s fleet of 25 IC electric school buses. The infrastructure development is the first for BorgWarner that takes advantage of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean School Bus Program electrification funding. 

The School District of the City of Pontiac met the EPA requirements as a prioritized community and received $20,000 per power dispenser, totaling $500,000 in funding for electric vehicle supply equipment hardware and installation costs, as well as $9,375,000 for the electric buses themselves. Additional funding for infrastructure is being provided by DTE Energy’s eFleet Charger Rebate program. 

“We are pleased to supply our charging technology to the School District of the City of Pontiac and be a part of its green initiative to electrify their school bus fleet,” said Isabelle McKenzie, President and General Manager, BorgWarner Morse Systems. “With a strong focus on electrification, we are proud to support the school bus market by enhancing the infrastructure for electric mobility, further demonstrating our commitment to building a cleaner, energy-efficient world.” 

The deployment includes BorgWarner’s 60kW and 125kW DCFCs and solidifies the School District of the City of Pontiac as the first school district to leverage BorgWarner’s sequential charging technology, which allows up to five dispensers to charge from a single power conversion system (PCS), one at a time in sequence. Installing multiple dispensers per power conversion system greatly reduces the initial investment and lowers installation costs while providing the ability to charge at DCFC levels.

BorgWarner’s state-of-the-art EV chargers are the only UL1741SA-certified DCFC solution on the market, making them vehicle-to-grid (V2G) ready and upgradeable for bidirectional applications. With the V2G capabilities of BorgWarner’s charging technology, future programs with the school district could include sending energy from bus batteries back to utilities or buildings during times of peak demand, supporting the power grid and enabling revenue-making opportunities.

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