More electric buses to hit road for National Express in West Midlands

The order, National Express's biggest electric bus order to date, is part of its £150 million investment in 300 UK-made zero emission buses announced earlier this year.

The 170 fully electric buses, which will be deployed across the West Midlands, are to be delivered by the end of 2024 and are being built in Falkirk by Alexander Dennis.

The new order takes the total number of BYD AD Enviro400EV buses to be operated by National Express in the West Midlands to 329, making it the largest of the type in the UK.

It follows an earlier order for 130 buses to join the fleet in Coventry as part of a £140m project to make Coventry the UK’s first all-electric bus city by 2025.

In 2020 National Express West Midlands launched an initial 29 fully electric buses into service on routes across Coventry, Birmingham and Solihull. With a total 329 of these vehicles in operation, the bus operator is expected to save nearly 22,000 tonnes of carbon from going out into the atmosphere every year.

Tom Stables, chief executive of National Express UK and Germany, said: “This latest move with Alexander Dennis is our biggest new vehicle order to date. Replacing another 170 of our diesel buses with electric is a huge step for us delivering on our commitment to have a completely zero emission bus fleet in the UK by 2030.

“These clean, green UK-built double decker buses are popular with our customers. As a result, they are not only more economical to run but they will boost passenger growth by getting more people to ditch their cars for the bus; and of course they do their bit to help tackle the climate and clean air emergency.

“National Express West Midlands has recently extended the £2 single ticket offer for another three months, so our new and existing customers can relax knowing that they are saving money and the planet by using our quieter, smoother, more comfortable buses.”

Additional investment will be made in infrastructure for charging and maintenance of the fleet across National Express West Midlands’ network of depots.