A BRAND NEW electric bus is being trialled in Reading until the end of this week.

The double-deck demonstrator will be trialled on the Purple 17 between Wokingham Road and Tilehurst between July 9 - 18.

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The new buys is guaranteed to acheive at least 160 miles between charges, and although some routes may cover 250 miles in a day, Reading Buses have claimed that the 17 route should fit well within the limit.

The trial comes as Reading Borough Council submit a bid to the government’s Zero Emission Bus Regional Area fund - ZEBRA for short - with the support of Reading Buses.

Reading Chronicle:

The aim is to obtain funding to cover the cost of upgrading future urban bus orders from diesel to zero emission electric buses – including the significant charging facilities that would be required.

If successful, Reading Buses say the first orders could be placed in 2022/23.

Robert Williams, Reading Buses Chief Executive Officer, said: “Electric technology is reaching a point where we can see that some urban services could reliably be converted to battery electric vehicles in the near future.

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“We are teaming up with manufacturers BYD and Alexander Dennis to give their latest London double decker a try to gather as much real-life data as possible from running the bus in Reading.

"We tried their single decker on the Winnersh Triangle Park & Ride service in 2019.

“We are also keen to hear customer views as the layout is a little bit different to regular purple17 buses, partly to make space for some of the batteries.”