First Bus has placed one of UK’s largest electric bus orders for 193 electric buses with UK manufacturer Wrightbus.
The £81m order will be rolled out across England from March 2023 and follows successful bids with local authorities as part of the Department for Transport’s (DfT) Zero Emission Bus Regional Area funding scheme.
First Bus will invest £43m in the new vehicles and will be supported to complete the project with a £38m grant from DfT.
The order will be split between Leicester (68); York (44); Leeds (32); Norwich (15) and Portsmouth (34) and each regional project will be completed over the course of the next two years.
It means that First Bus will have more than 500 EV buses in operation as the firm moves towards its pledge to roll out an entirely zero emission fleet by 2035.
All of the buses – the GB Kite Electroliner BEV and the double decker StreetDeck Electroliner BEV – will be manufactured and assembled at the company’s factory in Ballymena, Northern Ireland.
Janette Bell, Managing Director at First Bus UK, said: “We are absolutely delighted to place our largest ever Zero Emission Vehicle order and to do so with a UK manufacturer.
“Wrightbus have a really exciting product that we feel will enhance the customer experience at the same time as benefitting the environment.
“As leaders in sustainable mobility, we are fully aligned with the Government’s ambitions for a net-zero carbon transport system, including zero-emission bus fleets.”
