BYD/ADL: 130 electric double-deckers for Zenobe and National Express

ADL and BYD UK deliver 130 Enviro400EV to Zenobē, specialist in electric fleets and battery storage, and the bus operator National Express for deployment starting from early 2023 in Coventry. At the same time, the contract stipulates that the electric double-decker buses will be supplied with spare parts over a period of 16 years as part of a preventive maintenance (PPM). Coventry aims to become the first fully electric bus city in the UK. For this purpose, 300 diesel buses are to be replaced by 2025.

Turnkey solution

Zenobē provides National Express Electric Transportation as a Service (ETaaS) and finances and manages the turnkey solution. This includes, in addition to the vehicles, the anticipated replacement of onboard batteries, charging and network infrastructure, a second-life battery system at the depot, software for optimizing the charging process, spare parts, and comprehensive operational support.

Grant from Department of Transport over £50 million

The new project builds on the existing collaboration between ADL and Zenobē with National Express, which already provided the charging infrastructure and batteries for 29 BYD ADL Enviro400EV electric buses in Coventry and Birmingham in 2020. It is supported by a grant from the UK Department of Transport amounting to £50 million, which was awarded to the West Midlands Combined Authority for the full-electric bus program in Coventry.

We are delighted to be paving the way for the electric bus industry with ETaaS and revolutionizing fleet electrification. By retaining ownership of the vehicles and taking on the risk of transitioning to zero-emission vehicles, we give National Express the opportunity to utilize an electric bus fleet without the effort of owning the vehicles. (Steven Meersman, Co-founder and Director of Zenobē)