Electric Bus Boom: Northern Ireland Buying 100 Electric Buses

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The UK’s Translink has announced that it is excited about the Department for Infrastructure providing £88 million in funding to buy 100 zero-emission electric buses as well as EV charging infrastructure to support them.

Translink says this “will be transformational in delivering a zero emission transport future for Northern Ireland.”

Wrightbus will be supplying the electric buses. Being the UK, the buses will be a mixture of single-deck buses and double-deck buses.

All 100 electric buses should be in service no later than the summer of 2024.

This follows the rollout of 100 electric buses in the Belfast Metro this year. It also accompanies “planned conversion of Foyle Metro services in Derry~Londonderry to be completely Zero Emissions by summer 2023.” In other words, we’re talking hundreds of electric buses in Northern Ireland. (For those who don’t know a lot about European geography, note that Northern Ireland is a country/province/region in the UK, not Ireland.

“This further significant investment in Zero Emission buses supports our plans to decarbonise our fleet and lead the transport transformation in Northern Ireland for a cleaner, greener and healthier future for generations to come,” says Chris Conway, Translink Group Chief Executive.

“It enables us to deliver the benefits of Zero Emission technology to more areas across NI with 40 buses being allocated to Ulsterbus services in the North-West, Coleraine and Craigavon.

“We will enhance the existing zero emission Metro fleet in Belfast with 60 buses which will mean that over half of these services will be Zero Emission.

“All the new buses will run on sustainably sourced ‘green’ electricity and offer the latest standards in comfort, quality and accessibility with in-seat USB chargers, WiFi and low-floor accessibility features.

“Public transport plays a vital role in supporting the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of Northern Ireland and investment in Zero Emission fleet will be instrumental in helping us achieve our ambitious climate action targets to deliver 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030, achieve Net Zero by 2040 and to become Climate Positive by 2050.

“We would like to thank the Minister and his Department for this investment and look forward to working in partnership with Wrightbus to deliver these new state-of-the-art buses, building a more sustainable future for Northern Ireland.”

“We’re immensely proud that an additional 100 of our world-leading StreetDeck Electroliners and GB Kite Electroliners will be on the streets of Northern Ireland,” Wrightbus Chief Commercial Officer Ben Werth added. “At Wrightbus, we’re not only enabling operators to build zero emission fleets fit for the future, but we’re also supporting jobs and the wider green economy across Ireland and beyond. This latest investment will help to make a huge impact in reducing emissions across the country.”

Electric bus sales are growing across the world, but even within that context, hundreds of electric bus sales in little old Northern Ireland is a big electric bus story. That’s a lot of electric buses in a place with a population of just 1.9 million people. Hopefully we’ll see more regions in Europe and North America ordering hundreds of electric buses and cutting pollution within their borders.

Featured image courtesy of Wrightbus


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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

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