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How much fuel does a bus use?

How Much MPG Does a School Bus Get? Admittedly, the average school bus's fuel economy is what you'd expect of a bus—not great. According to the Alternative Fuels Data Center, school buses get an average fuel economy of just 6.02 miles per gallon (MPG).



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Executive buses average 6 miles per gallon, especially when it comes to larger models that carry 45 to 51 passengers. Newer, high-tech models may get up to 10 to 12 miles per gallon. The larger the bus, the lower the average mileage.

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A full size bus holds about 250 gallons of fuel. This make the range about 625 to 750mpg depending on the style of bus. The longest range electric bus made by Proterra was driven 1,101 miles on one charge. Most electric buses on the road today get 100- 250 miles to a charge.

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According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the average school bus travels 12,000 miles per year 4. At the average school bus mpg, that means a single school bus would use about 1,993 gallons of fuel annually.

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On average, a clean-diesel school bus can travel about 510 miles on a tank of diesel vs. only 270 miles on gasoline, based on the same standard-sized fuel tanks.

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Diesel. Among other types of fuel transport vehicles use, diesel fuel is a popular choice for those working with larger-capacity vehicles such as buses, vans, trucks, and boats.

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Transit buses are a LITTLE more fuel-efficient, but not as much as many people might think. A car (24.2 MPG) with the national-average of 1.5 passengers gets 36.3 PPMG (Passenger Miles per Gallon). A transit bus (3.3 MPG) with a national average load (9.1 passengers) gets 30 PPMG.

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Which mode of transportation is best for the earth? Actually, the bus -- specifically, city-to-city buses like the Greyhound. The bus itself gets a paltry 6 miles per gallon. The reason buses are environmentally sound is that they are usually full of people, giving it the highest miles per gallon per passenger, at 208.

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A typical school bus burns approximately one-half gallon of diesel fuel for each hour it idles. Thus, if a company operates 50 buses and each bus reduces its idling time by 30 minutes per day, at $1per gallon of diesel fuel, the company would save $2,250 per school year in fuel costs.

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The average performance of a 15 passenger gasoline-powered shuttle bus or minibus for sale is between 7 and 12 miles per gallon. The best way to find out the approximate number is to discuss your vehicle use pattern and schedule with a knowledgeable bus dealer.

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Diesel school buses are already the most fuel-efficient in the industry, due to a higher BTU count compared to other fuels, providing better fuel economy and a longer operating range compared to similar-sized gasoline, propane or compressed natural gas (CNG) engines.

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Fuel efficiency Fuel efficiencies used in this analysis were as follows: diesel bus: 4.82 miles per diesel gallon; diesel-hybrid bus: 5.84 miles per diesel gallon; natural gas bus: 4.47 miles per diesel gallon equivalent; and battery electric bus: 2.02 kWh per mile, which accounts for a 90 percent charging efficiency.

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Going to bed means going to either the hotel or the dorm to get a minimum of nine hours off duty before they call you back in. Sometimes they call you exactly nine hours from when you pulled in, sometimes you'll be sitting there for days.

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Buses come in at 299 grams per mile, second-worst only to cars at 371 grams. Building out passenger rail capacity would probably be a carbon-intensive process for the years of construction, but would then allow for generations of low emission travel.

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This means it takes an average of approximately 5.83 passenger cars to carry the average load of a bus (9.21/1.58).

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Diesel powers over 90% of all school buses thanks to its combination of fuel safety, energy efficiency, reliability, durability, established fueling and maintenance network, range and operational flexibility, secondary markets and low acquisition and operating costs.

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BEBs are powered by battery packs that run an electric motor to turn the wheels, the same as battery-powered electric cars. The batteries are recharged by plug-in chargers using electricity from the transmission grid. Since they do not use gasoline or diesel, BEBs do not produce tailpipe pollution.

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On average, a clean-diesel school bus can travel about 510 miles on a tank of diesel vs. only 270 miles on gasoline, based on the same standard-sized fuel tanks. Newer engines, like the Detroit™ DD5™ and DD8™ diesel engines, show an additional three percent increase in fuel efficiency.

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My rule of thumb when I was shopping for a bus was a well maintained gas bus with under 100,000 miles or a well maintained diesel bus with under 200,000. In theory, a well maintained diesel engine can practically run forever. I drive city buses. They often have multiple million miles before they retire them.

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A full size bus holds about 250 gallons of fuel. This make the range about 625 to 750mpg depending on the style of bus. The longest range electric bus made by Proterra was driven 1,101 miles on one charge. Most electric buses on the road today get 100- 250 miles to a charge.

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