The UK’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles will award £48 million (US$62 million) to support the purchase of 263 ultra-low emission buses. Nineteen successful bidders across England and Wales will receive funding to purchase the buses and supporting infrastructure, such as charge points.

This is the latest funding in a series of investments designed to drive the uptake of zero emission vehicles, following the government’s £1.5-billion Road to Zero strategy published last year.

In 2018, 4.2% of the UK bus sector was completely zero emission at the tailpipe (including 309 electric buses and 20 running on hydrogen fuel cells), according to the LowCVP. By contrast, the best ever monthly figure for the car sectorfor battery-electric vehicles is 1%.

There are four UK-based manufacturers of electric buses and two makers of hydrogen fuel cell buses.