Australian state of Victoria acquires electric buses
The new ‘Metropolitan Zero Emission Bus Franchises’ cover a third of the bus network in the capital Melbourne and are intended to drive forward the replacement of existing diesel buses with 600 new battery buses by 2035. The contracts, which cover 131 public routes and more than 230 school services across Melbourne, were awarded to Victoria-based bus companies Dysons, CDC and Kinetic following a competitive tender process. An interim step is also planned, with 36 battery-electric buses to be procured by 2025, “while more than half of the fleet would be replaced with low- or zero-emission vehicles,” according to the Australian news portal The Driven.
Replacing the diesel bus fleet is a major step towards Victoria’s plan of hitting net zero emissions by 2045. Once on the roads around Melbourne, the new electric buses are expected to “travel more than 35 million kilometres and save an estimated 45,000 tonnes of carbon emissions every year,” according to a communication from the Victorian Premier’s office. It is not entirely clear where the buses will come from, however, the Premier’s post also states: “The new franchises will support local manufacturing and create Victorian jobs through increased local content requirements.” New procurement targets have also been applied, which are to force the contracts to “help to benefit Indigenous businesses, priority job seekers and boosting the number of women across the workforce.”
“We’re ensuring more Victorians benefit from our investment with higher local content and social procurement targets,” said the Minister for Public and Active Transport Gabrielle Williams. The Minister for Climate Action, Lily D’Ambrosio, added: “These new metropolitan bus contracts will significantly lower emissions across Victoria’s bus industry which is critical to Victoria meeting our commitment of net zero emissions by 2045.”
“With Australia’s largest fleet of hybrid buses and seven electric buses in our Victorian fleet already, our commitment to the reduction of our environmental footprint is crucial to sustainability and reflects our commitment at a local and national level to build a better future for transport,” added Nicholas Yap, ComfortDelGro Australia CEO.
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