AN electric bus is to be trialled on Jersey’s roads again – almost 3½ years since an earlier attempt failed.
The 62-capacity vehicle can complete more than 195 miles on a single charge and is due to arrive in the Island on Monday to being out-of-service trials.
Kevin Hart, director for LibertyBus said ‘We are excited about trialling the electric bus on the Island. The Yutong E9 is a great little bus and we can’t wait to share the results of the trial with the Government of Jersey. On Wednesday, between 10.30am and 1pm, the bus will be on show outside Liberation Station and we invite the community of Jersey to get on board and take a look at the zero emission bus.’
In August 2019, a double-decker electric bus – a Metrodecker EV – was trialled in Jersey for six weeks. However, after repeated breakdowns, it was deemed unsuitable for the Island’s roads.
A follow-up trial with a single-decker bus was scheduled for February 2020, but had to be delayed due to supply issues.
And in June 2021, then-Infrastructure Minister Kevin Lewis said that costs were a key reason why the Island had not switched to an electric bus fleet.
