Ember has been awarded 13.2 million GBP by the Scottish Government to acquire an additional 100 new electric coaches from Yutong.
Funding for the vehicles comes from ScotZEB3, a scheme that has been designed to accelerate the transition to a net-zero transport system.
Once the vehicles have been delivered, they will enable a major expansion of the existing Ember network, bringing more frequent public transport to additional cities, towns and villages across the country.
Ember said:We're grateful to the Scottish Government for the support. We genuinely believe ScotZEB has helped make Scotland a global leader in zero-emission coaches and buses. It means Scotland is now the only country in the world with a fully electric national coach network and is seeing the benefits, with quieter roads, lower emissions and improved air quality.
We'll have much more to say soon about the routes and locations this unlocks. But the short version is simple: more places, more often, more reasons to leave the car at home.
The company has also provided a direct answer regarding its choice to purchase the vehicles from China, instead of buying locally built buses. Ember has stated that they have approached Scottish-based manufacturer ADL with proposals ‘many times’, and was told ‘repeatedly’ that they ‘cannot offer a suitable product and have no interest in developing something for this market’.
Instead, the company has chosen to work with Yutong, which has also recently invested in Scotland’s manufacturing landscape with locally based staff, as well as full training for the Ember’s own mechanics.
For further discussion on the presence of Chinese electric buses in the international market, check out the latest episode of All Routes Considered – a2b Global Media’s transport news based podcast.
