Stagecoach Midlands launches 91 Yutong and Alexander Dennis electric buses
Stagecoach Midlands marked the launch of its 91 electric buses for Coventry and Warwickshire at the British Motor Museum at Gaydon. The vehicles are a mixture of Alexander Dennis and Yutongs.
There are 31 Alexander Dennis Enviro400EV double-deckers going into service, which will largely be focused on services from Leamington into Coventry. The balance are to be based at the operator’s Nuneaton depot and are Yutong E10s and E12s. They are to see 5.7m kilometres of bus route per year converted to electric power, benefiting 6.6m passenger journeys per annum.
The new vehicles, which are being introduced into service in phases over the summer, will see 45% of the fleet at the Warwickshire depot alone powered by electricity once fully deployed.
The initiative represents a total investment of over £46 million, with £28.4 million funded directly by Stagecoach and the remaining support provided by Warwickshire County Council and West Midlands Combined Authority through the Department for Transport (DfT) ZEBRA2 and All Electric Bus City schemes, as well as Warwick District Council.
Stagecoach Midlands MD, Mark Whitelocks, told B&CB how it feels to get these vehicles on the road: “Really excited! It’s been a lot of hard work from our team at Stagecoach, as well as with all the authority partners, trying to make it happen. There’s been challenges along the way, but it’s been really rewarding. The best part is the buses have been out on the roads and we’re already starting to get customer feedback come in.”
The new electric buses are being introduced to Stagecoach’s Nuneaton, Leamington and Rugby depots.
The Nuneaton site has had 45 90kW sockets installed, 22 of which are gantry mounted to save on space. The Rugby facility has ten 90kW sockets installed and Leamington is due to have 46 90kW sockets fitted, but there is still some power supply work left to do at the latter site. “Hopefully towards the end of the summer we should have all 91 buses on the road,” Mark said.
