500 electric school buses for the LA 2028 Olympics
The school bus fleet is set to complement LA Metro’s wider bus operations and transit plans for the Games, although they will be used specifically to transport the likes of athletes, officials, and staff to different venues. The buses themselves won’t be purchased new either – instead, they’re being repurposed from existing school bus fleets across different LA districts during the school holidays.
Highland itself will manage operations of the buses during the Games, including charging, routing, and depot management. According to the company, it represents a major temporary deployments of school buses worldwide. Highland has said that, as well as providing transport, the batteries on the electric school buses can also act as backup generators if there are outages during the games. Additionally, Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) capabilities means power can be returned to the grid during idle periods.
CEO Duncan McIntyre called it “one of the largest deployments of electric school buses ever assembled for a global sporting event.” He added that it proves electromobility “can meet the demands of the biggest stage in sports”. It’s part of the city’s wider ‘no car’ commitment for the Games, and if successful, it could lay the groundwork for future host cities to adopt similar ‘repurposing’ models, rather than bulk-buying entire EV fleets for one-off use.
The use of Highland electric buses is one of a number of novel transportation methods set to be deployed for the LA Summer Olympics. The California-based eVTOL company Archer was recently selected as the the official “air taxi” service for the LA Games, where its Midnight eVTOLs will be used to shepherd VIPs between key Olympic venues (and dodge the famous LA traffic).
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