US cities pay too much for buses

The biggest killer are all the specific changes each city decides they need. If a standard feature set could be achieved mass production would be easier to arrange.

Perhaps with a module system to remove or add some subset of feature that are easily to adapt to it.

The 80% of federal funding¹ should be based on a "universal common standard", and cities pay 20% plus the city pays 100% for various customisations they need.

¹ I have not made any effort to verify this data but it's in hte article. It seems more generous than the federal government tend to be.

Similar to another comment here: the principle agent issue here is the person designing the spec for busses is not the person paying for the buses. If it was the case then the market would settle on a common standard as everyone seeks the lowest price.