New electric schoolbus fleet deployed by Zenobe
The fleet is being deployed by Lawrence Public Schools, and is made up of 25 electric school buses and 10 electric minibuses – making it one of the largest single electric school bus projects in Massachusetts to date. The buses themselves are operated by NRT Bus, a specialist school bus operator owned by Beacon Mobility.
To support the deployment of the new buses, charging infrastructure was constructed over the summer through a broad public-private partnership between the EPA, MassCEC, Beacon Mobility, Zenobe, Sargent & Lundy, National Grid, Liberty Utilities, and the local school district. It is now used to charge and house the 35 new electric buses, which have now entered service for the 2025-26 school year.
Maggie Clancy, Zenobē’s executive VP of U.S. EV Sales and Marketing, said: “We’re drawing on our global fleet electrification experience to bring clean transportation and its many health and climate benefits to NRT Bus, Beacon Mobility and Lawrence Public Schools. This is an excellent example of public-private partnership in action, and we believe projects like this can be as financially sustainable as they are environmentally sustainable and beneficial.”
While Zenobe handled the financing, infrastructure, and battery-as-a-service model, the press release doesn’t explicitly state which OEM provided the buses to Beacon Mobility. In Massachusetts, most electric school buses to date have come from Blue Bird or Lion Electric as both are on the state’s procurement lists or already have contracts with local operators. However, it’s not clear whether either of these were actually the supplier.
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