National Express Coventry is trialling a fully electric Yutong bus on the city’s roads this month.

Yutong’s single decker E12 bus can carry up to 70 passengers and is currently on loan to National Express from Welsh bus operator Newport Transport. 

It will be in service on National Express Coventry’s 20, 20A and 20B services between Coventry, Bedworth and Nuneaton from Tuesday 16 May until Thursday 25 May 2023.

Customers boarding the bus can expect to notice the super smooth and quiet journey, as well as features such as air conditioning and USB chargers.

National Express Coventry’s trial period will enable the local bus operator to gather driver and customer feedback while testing the E12’s zero-emission capabilities.

The region’s largest bus operator is already leading from the front with its transition to zero-emission vehicles. In 2019 National Express announced it had bought its last diesel bus and pledged to have a fully zero-emission bus fleet by 2030.

It currently has over 100 fully electric double decker buses serving routes across Birmingham, Solihull and Coventry. A further 20 hydrogen double decker buses operate on its 51 service between Birmingham and Walsall.

In January this year National Express announced it was investing a further £150 million in 300 UK-made electric zero emission buses to be deployed across the West Midlands. The brand-new buses will be delivered by the end of 2024.

David Bradford, Managing Director of National Express Coventry, said:

“Buses are the most used form of transport here in the West Midlands. Not only do our bus services play a key role in keeping people connected, they are also critical to driving down harmful emissions.

“Getting more people to ditch their cars and switch to the bus is vital to tackling climate change and we’re proud to be leading the way with more and more sustainable transport choices for our new and existing customers.

“We’re grateful to Newport Transport for allowing us to borrow their Yutong bus and look forward to testing it on our routes operating out of Coventry so we can better understand capabilities and efficiencies under our usual operating conditions.”

Official tests show that Yutong’s E12 single decker bus can operate up to 250 miles on a single charge. It takes less than two and a half hours to fully charge the vehicle.  

To date, Yutong’s zero emission vehicles have travelled over 21.2 billion miles and claim to be the most tried, tested and proven zero emission bus in the world.