Zenobe is collaborating with Abellio, a bus operator for Transport for London, to launch 34 electric buses in the British capital by March 2020. The firm’s own EV fund is supporting the roll-out with Zenobe owning and handling the batteries.

Besides, Zenobe will also run and maintain the charging infrastructure in the depot and funding the remainder of the buses. Zenobe announced its £120 million EV Fund in May as private financing model with the aim is to facilitate and accelerate the electrification of transport by supporting local councils and fleet operators, Zenobe said back then.

The London project is in partnership with operator Abellio and the electric buses coming from the Portuguese manufacturer Caetano. The 34 vehicles will run on two routes in the city: C10 between Canada Water and Victoria Station and P5 between Patmore Estate and Elephant and Castle.

It is the first such cooperation in the capital since the fund has been announced and Zenobe hopes this to be “the first of many opportunities like this in London,” Steven Meersman, the company’s co-founder said.

The firm is running similar projects in other places though, most prominently in Guildford, where Zenobe installed a battery-supported charging depot on-site for bus operator Stagecoach using 78 Tesla Powerpacks as reported.

The fund remains open and is conceived as an add-on to the British government’s 48 million pound Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme (ULEB). Zenobe says the fund can be used alongside the federal grants for the financing of buses, batteries and infrastructure as a service-based model.

current-news.co.uk, zenobe.co.uk