Blue Bird Corporation BLBD has received a record order of electric school buses from the Los Angeles Unified School District (“LAUSD”). Through A-Z Bus Sales, Inc., a local Blue Bird dealer, LAUSD ordered 180 electric, zero-emission school buses. These orders will enable the school district to kick-start its transition to 100% electric student transportation, making significant strides toward its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
LAUSD’s fleet already has 26 Blue Bird electric buses. It has now placed an order for 30 Vision and 150 All American state-of-the-art electric buses to expand the district’s zero-emission school bus fleet. LAUSD expects to receive delivery of the first buses in October 2024 and the rest of the order in early 2025.
On a single charge, both models have a range of up to 130 miles. Buses could take 3-8 hours to fully recharge, depending on LAUSD’s future charging infrastructure.
The bi-directional charging technology of Blue Bird will allow LAUSD to sell surplus energy stored in school bus batteries back to electric power companies at a profit.
Blue Bird recently achieved a milestone by delivering its 1500th electric school bus. Its zero-emission vehicles are present across 41 states in the United States. The company is making massive investments to expand its electric school bus production capacity. It has an Electric Vehicle Build-up Center with an annual capacity of up to 5,000 electric school buses.
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
BLBD currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Some better-ranked players in the auto space are Volvo VLVLY, Mercedes-Benz Group AG MBGAF and NIO Inc. NIO. VLVLY and MBGAF each sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present, and NIO carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for VLVLY’s 2023 sales and earnings suggests year-over-year growth of 4.2% and 73.1%, respectively. EPS estimates for 2023 and 2024 have improved by 4 cents and 3 cents, respectively, in the past 30 days.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MBGAF’s 2023 sales implies year-over-year growth of 5.8%. EPS estimates for 2023 and 2024 have moved up a penny and 30 cents, respectively, in the past 60 days.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NIO’s 2023 sales indicates year-over-year growth of 10.4%. EPS estimates for 2023 have improved by 2 cents in the past 30 days. EPS estimates for 2024 have improved by 4 cents in the past seven days.
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Blue Bird Corporation (BLBD) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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