A new partnership will enable energy company Centrica to charge some of its EV fleet at transport operator First Bus’ depots nationwide.
Centrica has signed into a shared infrastructure initiative from First Bus, which already services Openreach, DPD and Police Scotland. When buses are away from the depot, Centrica engineers travelling in the company’s EVs will have access to First Bus’ rapid EV charging infrastructure.
Initially, Centrica’s fleet will be able to power up at the First Bus depot in Leicester, with potential for the partnership to extend to further depots across the UK. An industry leader in fleet electrification, First Bus is making its EV infrastructure available to support local communities and businesses.
The offering is also in line with the company’s own targeted zero emissions bus fleet by 2035. Centrica has more than 3,000 EVs in its fleet so far, and aims to convert all its diesel vehicles to zero emissions by 2030.
Department for Transport minister Lilian Greenwood joined representatives from First Bus and Centrica for the partnership launch. She commented: “It’s fantastic to see this partnership between First Bus and Centrica to help engineers in making the switch to electric.”
Director of First Bus’ decarbonisation programme, Faizan Ahmad, said that the collaboration showcases “the power of teamwork”.
Rob Simister, director of fleet operations at Centrica, added: “This partnership with First Bus will mean we are more effective at getting to our customers, while speeding up the rollout of our electric vehicles. That’s good news for the country, our colleagues, and our customers.”
Public transport electrification
At the end of October, First Bus announced that its collaboration with EV charging system provider Heliox would be expanded, seeing five new electric bus depots developed in Bristol, Weston-super-Mare, Minehead, Taunton, and Basildon, enabling 189 new electric buses to take to the road across the UK.
The companies initially partnered in 2021 on the development of the UK’s largest electric bus depot, capable of charging 178 vehicles simultaneously, in Glasgow. The companies have since delivered nine operational bus charging depots across England and Scotland.
Data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) has shown demand for zero-emission buses and trucks rising exponentially, with 424 new zero-emissions buses registered in Q2 2024, an increase of a third.
To enable the continued electrification of the UK’s bus services, in 2022 EV fleet and battery storage specialist Zenobe established a £241 million EV financing platform, building a long-term debt framework for electric bus fleets on private placement and the Revolving Credit Facility (RCF).
In May this year, Zenobe announced that it will be able to support the deployment of over 2,000 electric bus vehicles across the UK and Ireland by 2026 after completing a £410 million finance deal.
More recently, it embarked on its first retrofit project, repowering Big Bus Tours’ open-top bus fleet with 328kWh LG Chem Batteries and powertrains, by Equipmake Limited.
