Oxfordshire County Council, Go-Ahead’s Oxford Bus Company and Stagecoach have collaborated to launch 159 electric buses in the city of Oxford, UK. This includes 104 buses manufactured by Wrightbus and 55 manufactured by Alexander Dennis Limited.
In addition to the new vehicles, this 82.5 million GBP project has also funded two electric charging hubs at the city’s bus depots at Cowley House and Network Oxford.
The charging hubs are powered by EDF Energy’s Oxford Superhub network to provide enough electricity to charge all 159 buses to drive up to 200 miles each day.
The first of these new zero-emission vehicles have now been rolled out across the city.
The Wrightbus electric buses will be operated by Oxford Bus Company. The new units include 99 of the new-look 2024 StreetDeck Electroliners and five GB Kite Electroliner single deckers.
Meanwhile, the 55 Alexander Dennis Enviro400EV double-deckers will be operated by Stagecoach.
Luke Marion, Oxford Bus Company Managing Director, said:This is a historic moment in our journey towards transforming our city services to electric. Our first tranche of electric buses is now in service and are already starting to improve air quality and make bus travel an even more attractive option for people to travel around Oxford.
The funding for this project was supported by 32.8 million GBP from the government’s Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) scheme. The council also contributed 6 million GBP directly, while the bus operators invested 43.7 million GBP.
