Bus repower company Kleanbus has called upon the UK Government to take urgent action on its national bus electrification strategy and incentivise the price of a repowered electric bus in England and Wales.
Kleanbus repower existing buses by replacing their diesel engines or hybrid powertrains with fully electric powertrains. The company claim this is the fastest and most cost-effective method to achieve a zero-emission bus fleet and doing so could bring about fully electric bus fleets six years earlier than a roll out of new zero emission buses.
Kleanbus’ advanced ‘ePowertrain Module’ combines components from leading Tier 1 suppliers with its own integration technology and proprietary software. This solution enables the rapid and cost-effective conversion of single or double-decker buses from internal combustion engines to fully electric power. Once the e-drivetrain solution is designed and tested, repowering an individual bus takes less than two weeks, minimising service disruptions.
However, with no funding available to reduce the price of a repowered bus, Kleanbus urges the UK Government to not wait on initiating a strategy that includes this vital upcycling technology, which has a huge role to play in decarbonising the bus fleet of England and Wales.
“The data around the rising levels of air pollution and its harmful effects do not lie,” said Joe Tighe, CEO of Kleanbus. “It’s a worrying situation that is becoming more dangerous the longer we do not make the transition to zero emission transportation. Decarbonising transport has become one of the greatest challenges of our time, but it can be achieved at speed with the right solution, and more importantly the support and funding to do so. Fleet operators and the planet don’t have time to waste, there is a need for UK to have a bus strategy that includes repowering of buses with electric powertrains. The UK is waiting when it needs to be acting. We at Kleanbus call for a greater level of support for operators to make the change to electric quicker to help us all breathe easier.”
