Government urged to incentivise price of repowered buses

Bus repower company Kleanbus has called upon the UK Government to incentivise the price of a repowered electric bus in England & Wales.

Speaking on Clean Air Day at Zemo's 20th Anniversary Conference in London, Lucy Parkin Director of ESG at Kleanbus addressed the significant opportunities in reducing urban pollution through repowering - converting an existing diesel or hybrid bus to electric power - which is fast and cost-effective. However, no funding is available to reduce the price of a repowered bus.

Kleanbus applauds funding initiatives, such as that led by Transport Scotland’s ScotZEB, which acknowledges the pivotal role of repowering and offers £50,000 grants to make SMEs access and expedite the transition of diesel buses to zero emissions.

Joe Tighe, CEO of Kleanbus, commented: “Decarbonising transport has become one of the greatest challenges of our time but it can be achieved at speed with the right solution, and more importantly the support and funding to do so. Fleet operators and the planet don’t have time to waste, there is a need for UK to have a bus strategy that includes repowering of buses with electric powertrains. The UK is waiting when it needs to be acting. We at Kleanbus call for a greater level of support for operators to make the change to electric quicker to help us all breathe easier.”

Repowering existing buses by replacing their diesel engines or hybrid powertrains with fully electric powertrains is the fastest and most cost-effective method to achieve a zero-emission bus fleet. By doing so, it could bring about fully electric bus fleets six years earlier than relying on the roll out of new zero emission buses alone. This could give a potential saving of over 4Mt CO2 and reduce emissions by up to 80% across a vehicle's lifecycle.

Kleanbus offers an advanced 'ePowertrain Module' which combines components from leading Tier 1 suppliers with its own integration technology and proprietary software. This innovative solution enables the rapid and cost-effective conversion of single or double-decker buses from internal combustion engines to fully electric power. Once the e-drivetrain solution is designed and tested, repowering an individual bus takes less than two weeks, minimising service disruptions. Not only does this conversion significantly reduce emissions, but it also lowers operating costs to a third of those associated with conventional diesel buses.