Blue electric bus driving on road.

The addition of the new buses will increase the ACT’s fleet to 106 zero emission buses over the next three years.

31 May 2023

Another 94 electric buses will join Canberra's public transport network, increasing the fleet to 106 zero emissions buses over the next three years.

Transport Canberra expects to receive the first of the 94 electric buses later this year, with the remainder progressively delivered through to 2026.

These new buses will deliver the biggest change in technology for Canberra’s bus fleet in decades, as part of the ACT Government’s Zero-Emission Transition Plan for Transport Canberra.

The ACT continues to lead the way on zero emissions transport with the largest fleet of electric buses delivered per capita in Australia. This will transition more than 20 per cent of Canberra’s bus fleet to zero-emission technology, with the rest of the fleet transitioning by 2040 or earlier.

The ACT Government has signed a contract with Vehicle Dealers International (VDI) to buy 90 Yutong ‘E12’ battery electric buses and is currently in negotiation with Custom Denning to procure four 'Element’ battery electric buses, including charging infrastructure.

Canberra’s first 12 of electric buses have been successfully delivering services every day across the ACT.

The buses are powered by lithium-ion phosphate batteries and can operate for a maximum of 16 hours on a single charge. They can fit a total of 65 people with 45 seated (including driver) and 20 standing.

Did you know Transport Canberra’s electric buses:

  • travel an average distance of 300km per weekday
  • run for an average of 11 hours per day, with the highest thus far being 14.8 hours
  • have travelled more than 129,000 kilometres across Canberra in their first five months of operation.

The procurement of the new buses follows work underway to upgrade grid infrastructure to supply the new Woden and existing Tuggeranong bus depots with the electrical capacity to charge up to 300 electric buses, together with investments in skills to support the transition.


Get ACT news and events delivered straight to your inbox, sign up to our email newsletter:


All Canberra

Share this article:

Subscribe to the OUR CBR newsletter

Get the latest stories in your inbox