The South Australian government has today announced it has ordered 60 brand new 100 per cent full battery electric buses and revealed plans to create a zero-emissions passenger transport network.
The new bus fleet bodies will come with a Scania chassis and a Volgren body, with the infrastructure to charge the buses to be installed at the Morphettville depot.
The buses will be delivered progressively throughout the second half of this year and the start of 2026, with there currently only being the one trial full battery electric bus operating on the state’s bus network.
Alongside this, the SA government has also appointed two global engineering advisory firms to develop detailed planning for creating a zero-emissions passenger transport network.
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Mott MacDonald and WSP will help develop the detailed business cases to plan towards the zero-emissions operations that will span across both bus and passenger rail networks.
This work will consolidate the large body of planning and feasibility analysis already done by the state government.
It also follows a series of meetings held by SA infrastructure and transport minister Tom Koutsantonis with some of the world’s biggest rail companies at Berlin’s InnoTrans 2024 to focus on rolling out more battery electric trains in the state.
The Adelaide Metro bus fleet currently consists of just over 1000 vehicles powered by a mix of diesel, hybrid, battery electric and natural gas powertrains, with two hydrogen buses currently on trial. As of September 2022, procurement of new diesel-only buses has ceased, and all new vehicles are now either diesel-electric hybrids or battery electric.
With transport being the largest single source of emissions in the state and the state government committed to reducing emissions by at least 60 per cent of 2005 levels by 2030, the business cases are expected to be completed early next year to allow for the roll-out of more green buses in South Australia.
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