Centrica and First Bus have announced a new partnership that will give Centrica secure access to First Bus’s rapid electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure at bus depots to charge its vehicles. The initial phase of the Centrica partnership will allow the company to charge a selection of its EV fleet at First Bus’s Leicester depot while buses are out on the road in service. The partnership has the potential to extend to further depots across the bus operator’s UK infrastructure in the future.
FirstBus has around 600 electric buses (13% of its fleet) and over 600 charging outlets, according to its FY2024 annual report. The switch to electric has provided “significant opportunity to reduce engineering costs – early indications of 30% reduction in vehicle maintenance costs where the entire fleet is electric”, it said. The company has installed solar panels at 24 depots to power heat, lighting and engineering bays
The annual report also noted electrification earnings streams of £1 million generated in FY 2024. It has ‘business to business’ charging at four depots, sharing infrastructure with Openreach, DPD and Police Scotland. The report said it was evolving Fuel and electricity hedging programmes and it has capacity market trading agreement in place at Caledonia in Glasgow.
Centrica currently has more than 3000 electric vehicles in its fleet but its aiming to convert all its diesel vehicles to zero emissions by 2030.
Rob Simister, Director of Fleet Operations at Centrica, said: “As we continue to electrify our fleet, we’re always looking for innovative ways to address some of the operational challenges that comes with such a large transition. This partnership with First Bus will mean we’re more effective at getting to our customers, while speeding up the rollout of our electric vehicles.”