Buses will have fairly large batteries (Bird does 150kWh). The percentage of the battery needed for heat goes down as size goes up because the interior size is relatively negligible in how much added heating capacity is needed to keep the bus warm.

But yes, probably wouldn't be too crazy to throw on a propane heater in especially cold climates.

AAA says that EV batteries tend to lose power faster in cold weather, getting as little as 50-60% of their advertised range.

Right, and the EVs that lose that much range are the ones with the smallest battery packs. The heating requirement as a percentage of the battery pack goes down as the battery gets larger. It takes roughly the same amount of energy to keep a 40kWh battery warm as it does to keep a 150kWh battery warm.

The same logic doesn't directly translate for a car as a bus.

Don't buy a battery only car if you don't have a place to charge it. But that's totally irrelevant to school busses.

They wouldn't use public chargers you buffoon.

School busses are used like 4 hours per day, so that leaves 20 hours per day for charging.

99% of School busses need to drive less than 156 miles per day.

School busses drive slowly, another thing well suited to electrification.

Honestly lithium batteries are probably totally unneeded here. Something swappable? A cheaper lower performance battery could be used and charged or swapped during the 6 hours the kids are at school. Charging speed could be actively managed to help level grid load e.g charge overnight, but not during peak usage times.

For sure. The ROI really isn't there when it happens every couple of years. Like you said, they do call it off when it's that cold. It's not safe for kids that have to walk to the bus or school. The main thing is that electric is the same way, so it's a moot point.