Funding for electric buses and coaches: FOI release

Information requested

1. What conditions are made on any loans or grants to bus or coach operators for Electric vehicle purchase to ensure that legacy diesel fleet are decommissioned not simply pushed out of sight?

2. How much of the funding for these electric fleets is grant versus loans?

3. How much in total has been spent and how many vehicles (broken down by operator)?

4. What is the average capacity of the state funded electric bus coach?

5. What is the average passenger load on these vehicles?

6. How much CO2 is saved if the diesel vehicles are not decommissioned and what is the business case justification?

7. How many diesel vehicles have been decommissioned as a result of the loan/grant funding for vehicles?

Response

In response to questions 1 and 2, I have included a copy of the guidance prepared for this round of grant funding. We required that the buses must be operated on registered local bus services in Scotland for a minimum of 5 years. The provision of local bus services is a matter for individual bus operators who use their own commercial judgement on vehicle types used in the open de-regulated market, as established by the Transport Act 1985.

The information you have requested at question 3 is available from the Transport Scotland website - Scottish Zero Emission Bus challenge fund | Transport Scotland. The website provides total spend and how many vehicles (broken down by operator). Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

To answer question 4, paragraph 30 of the attached ScotZEB guidance provides details of state funding available for each different vehicle capacity.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some the information you have requested. We do not hold information on average passenger load on these vehicles or how many diesel vehicles have been decommissioned as a result of the grant funding. As noted earlier, this is a matter for operators given the open de-regulated market. You may wish to contact the operators on this matter who may be able to help you.

For CO2 savings the Zemo Partnership website is a useful resource for obtaining the Environmental Credentials for the zero emission buses purchased through the first phase of the SCOTZEB Challenge fund and the Scottish Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme. Here is a link to their website - Certificates Hub (zemo.org.uk).

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202300374511 - Information Released - Annex

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