For the first time in over half a century, Glasgow has added two electric buses to its commercial fleet since the de-commissioning of the electric trolley bus in 1967. The buses are part of larger projects to assist the city’s net-zero plans.
The new electric public transport has been funded through SP Energy’s £20 million green economy fund which aims to help Scotland reach it’s 2045 net-zero goal. To meet the needs of the buses and future vehicles, 22 charging points have been installed at Glasgow’s Caledonia depot. First Glasgow (the largest bus service to service greater Glasgow) invested more than £3 million over two years to introduce a further 150 low-emission vehicles to the fleet.
Across the UK, 263 ultra-low emission busses are planned for deployment over the coming years. In London alone, SSE (a UK energy company) has pledged to install 330 electric charge points for buses are planned for installation by April 2020. Additionally, many companies including SSE are committing to the electrification of their own business fleets.
The National Express has announced plans to have a zero-emission bus fleet by 2030, followed by zero-emission coaches in 2035. To start the process the National Express are trialling electric buses in the West Midlands as part of the government’s £5 billion bus fund in the area. A complete roll-out of electric buses will follow once National Express receive feedback from the trial buses and address any problems that they may encounter.
On the back of the increased use of electric vehicles (EVs), Europe is expected to need to increase its current amount of EV points ‘massively’ to meet 2030 net-zero goals. An additional 3 million charging points would aide plans to become climate neutral.
Tightened restrictions on co2 emissions encourage the use of electric vehicles and increases the strain on the EV charging network. An analysis of the UK’s aims to install more EV charging points saw that 20-30% of new charging points need to be placed in disadvantaged areas so that everyone can reap the benefits of zero-emission transport.
Read more about the chargers UCS Renewables install here
Shop the range of chargers that UCS Renewables installs here
Resources: Edie Euractiv Recharge EU PDF (published by Transport & Environment)
