autoevolution
 

London to Have World’s First Pure Electric Double-Decker

New Routemaster 1 photo
Photo: www.urban75.org
As the bicycle enthusiast he is, former journalist and current Mayor of London Boris Johnson is also an advocate of cleaner public transport. Changes have been conducted ever since he took over the seat of UK’s capital administration, back in 2008. Regular buses have been switched to hybrid if not electrical power, but a pure electric double-decker is a worldwide premiere.
Mayor Boris Johnson has announced today that the world’s first purpose-built purely electric double-decker bus will enter passenger service in London this year. The call was made during the first ever global Clean Bus Summit.

The Clean Bus Summit and new trial underlines the Mayor’s continuing efforts to reduce emissions from London’s bus fleet, which is already one of the cleanest in the world,” the city’s officials detail in a press release. Until now apparently, a purely electric double-decker bus was not possible due to the size of battery packs required to power it. For this one, however, they have partnered up with the Chinese at BYD and found the way around it.

The new bus will enter service on Route 16 from October, running between Cricklewood and Victoria Station. The investment is part of a bigger scale plan that involves halving NOx emissions for the bus fleet by the end of Johnson’s term in office in 2016, compared to 2008.

According to the Town Hall’s figures, since 2008, the Mayor has rolled out more than 1,300 hybrid electric buses, retrofitted more than 1,400 buses to reduce their emissions by up to 88 percent and developed the New Routemaster, one of the cleanest double deck busses of its type in the world.
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories