EVWire brief: The last diesel bus to ever be manufactured in Western Australia has left the Volgren bus production plant in Malaga, a suburb of Perth. Everything coming out next from this 26-year-old plant is all-electric, and aims to replace the fleet across the state over the next decades.
Each electric bus from Volgren, which has been developed together with Volvo, has the capability to travel up to 300 km (186mi) on a single charge and saves about 40 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year. Late last year, Volgren celebrated its 10,000th bus built, of which 150 had been zero-emission buses. Per Volgren’s website, it also seems the e-nbuses can be built on an BYD platform (brochure) in addition to Volvo (brochure)
Image: Volgren
Shifting bus manufacturing to fully electric follows on from a AU$250 million program jointly funded by the State and Federal Governments to deliver an initial 130 electric buses and associated infrastructure and bus depot upgrades. Some of the work now underway under this program:
18 electric buses built at Volgren's Malaga facility and now servicing Perth CAT routes;
Completion of 18 EV charging dispensers at Elizabeth Quay Bus Station;
Soon-to-be-complete electric charging infrastructure at the Malaga bus depot with the first electric bus operating from the facility in mid-2025;
Plans for EV charging infrastructure upgrades to the Karrinyup and Claisebrook bus depots; and
Start of works on the new Bayswater EV depot.
The state government will also allocate an additional AU$61.9 million in the upcoming state budget to shift manufacturing to fully electric.
Quotes:
“Building electric buses locally is a key part of my government’s vision for a future that is made in WA, complementing our locally built Metronet railcars and historic investment in public transport.
It won’t just create more than 100 jobs in Perth’s north-eastern suburbs – it will lower our emissions and reduce operating costs across Perth’s public transport network too.”
"From today - every bus that leaves our Malaga bus manufacturing facility will be electric, with every electric bus saving about 40 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year. In the space of a few years, we have seen the successful trial of four electric buses on the Joondalup CAT network, a $250 million investment to start manufacturing electric buses and today, the full transition to locally made electric buses.
Source: Government of Western Australia, Volgren website, cover image from their 60 BEV bus delivery in South Australia.
