Alexander Dennis and BYD UK jointly announced today that their electric vehicle partnership will supply four single deck buses to the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority.
Alexander Dennis is a subsidiary of leading independent global bus manufacturer NFI Group Inc. (NFI), while BYD is a global leader in batteries, energy management and electric mobility.
The four electric BYD–Alexander Dennis Enviro200EV single deck buses will be the first zero-emission buses in Sheffield, reducing emissions inside the city’s Clean Air Zone, which launched earlier this year.
They will convert the Sheffield Connect service to electric operation. Linking destinations around the heart of the city and running up to every 10 minutes, the route provides residents and visitors with easy links to and from train, tram and other bus services.
The 10.2m long buses will be publicly owned by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, which will provide them to the bus company chosen to operate the service. They have been part-funded by the UK Government’s Zero-Emission Regional Bus Areas (ZEBRA) scheme.
Martin Dunleavy, Regional Sales Manager at Alexander Dennis, said: “We’re really pleased to support the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority with their future vision to transform public transport. We look forward to playing our part in supporting South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard’s vision to transform the public transport network with the four publicly-owned zero-emission buses for the city of Sheffield. The new electric buses will be supported by our aftermarket team based locally in South Yorkshire at our AD24 service centre in Anston.”
Frank Thorpe, Managing Director, BYD UK, said: “BYD is delighted to support this eco-friendly initiative introducing publicly owned non-polluting electric buses to passengers in Sheffield’s Clean Air Zone. This is a superb example of ‘thinking outside the box’ to adopt electric bus transport for which we applaud the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority. In partnership with Alexander Dennis, in which BYD brings the world’s most advanced battery technology, we look forward to being part of this ongoing ‘electric bus journey’ in South Yorkshire.”