At ACT Expo 2026, we caught up with Brad Beauchamp, EV Segment Leader at Blue Bird Bus Corporation, standing in front of their Vision EV — a Type C school bus that’s part of a fleet now exceeding 3,500 electric school buses across 41 states and four Canadian provinces.
What followed was one of the more grounded conversations we’ve had at the show. No hype — just a nearly 100-year-old American manufacturer navigating electrification, connectivity, and what it actually means to keep kids safe on the road.
What we covered:
→ Why Blue Bird has offered multi-fuel propulsion for 30+ years — and how they help districts choose the right one for their routes and geography
→ How telematics became the natural launching point for EV deployment — because a smaller tank, longer fill time, and new technology meant operators needed real-time visibility from day one
→ The Sibros partnership — why Blue Bird chose an OEM-experienced software partner to manage connectivity, data logging, remote diagnostics, and OTA updates across a vocational fleet that runs suburban, urban, and rural
→ What dealers get out of it — fault code visibility, proactive outreach, and the ability to dispatch a mobile technician before a bus goes down
→ The longer view — from school buses as COVID-era Wi-Fi hotspots to vehicle-to-grid energy export, Brad’s thinking about the next 100 years, not just the next product cycle
Watch the full interview above.