Buses repowered by NewPower halve maintenance and energy costs with a class-leading range of more than 230 miles

Repowered buses converted from diesel to battery-electric by NewPower are the most efficient on the market with a class-leading range of more than 230 miles, new data has shown. NewPower - a bold enterprise from OEM Wrightbus that converts diesel buses into zero-emission electric vehicles – has collated the statistics from the first 35,000 miles in service of its fleet of more than 20 repowered buses in operation across the UK. The real-life data, which includes in-service winter driving and real-life mileage, shows that NewPower’s repowered buses are class-leading, clocking up 232 miles in service on a single charge. In addition, NewPower offers operators a 21% better total cost of ownership per bus versus a diesel equivalent thanks to a 47% reduction in maintenance and energy costs. Each repowered bus has its diesel engines replaced with new zero-emission electric powertrains at NewPower’s hi-tech Bicester factory in Oxfordshire, saving 70,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per bus per year. Buses repowered at NewPower are also now Zero Emissions Vehicle Repower Accreditation Scheme (ZEVRAS) approved, after the company recently received certification. Manufacturers of zero emission repowered systems must get approved by ZEVRAS before the kit they use to convert the vehicle can be added to list of approved devices. In a cost-effective approach to decarbonisation, the NewPower process converts diesel buses into electric for less than half of the price of a new electric bus – extending their lifespan by up to 10 years in the process. As a result, there are significant embodied carbon savings* of refurbishing an older vehicle over manufacturing a new vehicle. Zero-emission vehicles built by Wrightbus have already logged over 14 million miles, preventing more than 24,000 tonnes of CO₂ from polluting the atmosphere. Wrightbus CEO Jean-Marc Gales said: “We’ve always known our repowered buses would offer outstanding performance and it’s satisfying to now be able to back that up with data from the first 20,000 NewPower miles travelled. “Thanks to the fact that we have the knowledge and expertise from the 2,300 strong Wrightbus workforce – including our master technicians – means NewPower has unrivalled expertise in being able to swap powertrains. It makes sense not just from a sustainability point of view, but from a cost perspective too.” NewPower was launched last year by world-leading bus manufacturer Wrightbus. It is the first original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to offer a repowering service to help speed up the decarbonisation process by eradicating diesel powertrains in older fleets at a substantially lower price than purchasing a new bus. *Embodied carbon savings is the focus on reusing and repurposing assets where possible, to avoid the need for the building of new assets automatically. In this instance, repurposing existing mid-life buses already built.