34 electric buses will be coming to Portsmouth, Fareham and Gosport

Successful bids from Hampshire County Council and Portsmouth City Council to the Zero Emission Bus Regional Area funding scheme have secured 34 electric buses for South Hampshire.

In addition, the operator First Bus has submitted plans for an electric depot in Fareham to power up to 93 EV buses.

The planning application, submitted to Fareham Borough Council, will enable electrification works at its current depot on Gosport Road - and the plans will be determined before October 10.

Marc Reddy, the managing director of First Bus Hampshire, Dorset and Berkshire said: ‘We are very excited to be able to bring 34 zero-emission vehicles to Portsmouth, Fareham and Gosport.

‘One of our main goals is to make the bus part of the solution when it comes to improving air quality in the city and the EV buses do exactly that.

‘These state-of-the-art buses will be environmentally friendly and improve air quality.’

Councillor Edward Heron, the county council’s executive member for environment and transport strategy, said: ‘This really is welcome news and I’m pleased the county council has been an active player in this significant development which supports our climate change target.

‘We are committed to building on the good relationships we have with bus operators to improve services in Hampshire and drive up passenger numbers, as demonstrated by our Bus Service Improvement Plan.’

Councillor Lynne Stagg, cabinet member for traffic and transportation at Portsmouth City Council, said: ‘The ordering of 34 zero-emission buses is a key milestone as we race forward with our plans to transform bus travel, to make it cleaner, greener and better connected.’

Across England a total of £81m is set to be spent on 193 EV buses with the cost split between Firstbus, committing £43m, and the Department of Transport contributing grant funding of £38m.

The scheme comes after FirstGroup’s commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 - the first operator in the UK to formally commit to the ‘science-based target’.

Portsmouth has already seen a Clean Air Zone imposed on the city to try to improve air quality.