Coventry plans to switch to electric buses only by the end of 2025. The city is looking to buy 297 e-buses. Coventry and Oxford were picked in early 2021 for an England-wide competition to switch an entire urban bus fleet to electric power.
Coventry City Council announced that the city will get £50 million to fund the new e-buses. The grant will also cover infrastructure investment like charging points and power grid upgrades. The funding will be secured once the West Midlands Combined Authority – the local government for the area around Coventry – approves the City’s final business case.
In February 2020 the UK government announced a £5 billion plan to improve bus journey and mobility options. The UK’s first-ever long-term bus strategy launches in the coming months to ensure buses are prioritised into the future. Coventry received a fleet of ten double-decker battery-electric buses in summer 2020. They are operated by National Express.
For more on the Coventry project, see Sustainable bus webpage.
