Specialist battery firm, Zenobe Energy, have secured a £20 million loan which will help them to finance enough batteries to power around 100 electric buses across the UK.
The company will lease the batteries to bus operators as part of a service contract which would include operating the charging infrastructure and charging the batteries overnight. It is hoped this new loan will help the UK increase its electric bus fleet.
Such a lease scheme is already in use in south London, where Zenobe lease batteries to buses run by Abellio.
It is hoped that leasing the batteries and their servicing will help transport companies with the move to electric vehicles, offering them greater support with complex infrastructure and dividing the financial risk.
Founder of Zenobe, Nicholas Beatty, said the new funding will be crucial in supporting electric buses as transport companies begin to adopt zero-emissions fleets.
