In the U.S. alone, more than 25 million children rely on school buses, most of which run on high-polluting diesel fuel. Zūm aims to replace those dinosaurs with a 100%-electric fleet—one that runs more reliably on time, as well.
Zūm started as a ride-sharing service that offered parents a more reliable alternative to school buses. CEO Ritu Narayan and her team soon realized that bus systems themselves could benefit from Zūm’s scheduling, student-tracking, and route-mapping tech. The company now serves about 4,000 schools, including the school districts of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Omaha, and Kansas City, Mo.; typically, Zūm supplies the tech and trains the district’s drivers on how to use it. The company says commute times have fallen by up to 20% for its customers, which in turn cuts fuel and other costs.
Electrifying more buses is the next big step. Oakland now boasts the nation’s first all-electric fleet, operated by Zūm. When they’re not on the road, the district’s 74 vehicles get plugged back into the grid, where their stored energy can produce about 2.1 gigawatt hours of electricity per year, enough to power hundreds of homes. Zūm hopes to eventually deploy 10,000 such bidirectional buses, supplying 300 gigawatt hours of energy.