THE ACT government has signed a contract to buy 90 Yutong E12 battery electric buses and is in negotiation with Custom Denning for four Element battery electric buses including charging infrastructure.

Transport Canberra says it expects to receive the first of the 94 electric buses from late this year and rest delivered progressively 2026. The entire fleet will transition to electric buses by 2040 or earlier.

The new buses will bring the total of battery buses to 106. This represents 20 per cent of the bus fleet.

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.

Work is also underway to upgrade grid infrastructure to supply the new Woden and existing Tuggeranong bus depots with the electrical capacity to charge up to 300 buses.

TC operational performance metrics of the existing Yutong E12 battery electric buses:

• Average distance travelled per weekday: about 300 kilometres
• Average state of battery charge remaining on completion of shift: about 25% to 30%
• Average running hours per day: 11 hours with highest thus far being 14.8 hours
• Have travelled more than 129,000 kilometres across Canberra in their first five months of operation