EV Buses in Oxford

[AdamH]

The first example of the 55 ADL Enviro400 EV going to Stagecoach West at Oxford depot has now arrived. This is fleet number 80002 (SK24XRC) and arrived on Wednesday for driver training duties. Another 4 are expected over the next few days, with the remaining 50 being held back until there enough to convert the majority of the network to EV in one go.

Oxford Bus Company (part of Go Ahead) are also acquiring a large fleet of Electric bus, built by WriteBus I believe, and all city services will share a unified livery.

To quote part of a press release...

Stagecoach was part of a successful bid with Oxfordshire County Council to be awarded funding from the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas scheme (ZEBRA). The funding we received was circa £32.8m along with a further £6m from the local authority itself. Stagecoach has invested, with Oxford Bus Company, an additional £43.7m which will deliver both electric vehicles and their relevant infrastructure in a package worth £82.5m.

If you are wondering why the 80002 is the first to arrive, it's because 80001 was the first one built in a brand new factory, so ADL are hanging on to it for a while for testing.