JCB heir’s ‘Boris Bus’ firm launches two clean energy single-deckers

THE company behind the ‘Boris Bus’ is launching two new clean energy buses as it races to meet demand for green transport.

Wrightbus, run by JCB heir Jo Bamford, will this month launch a single-deck electric bus, the GB Kite Electroliner, and a single-deck bus powered by hydrogen, the GB Kite Hydroliner.

The hydrogen model has a range of 450 miles and refuels in nine minutes. The electric bus has a 200mile range and charges in less than three hours.

The low-carbon buses will be manufactured at the Wrightbus plant in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, which is taking on 300 more staff, to take its workforce up to 930. Wrightbus also makes a double-deck electric bus and the ‘Boris Bus’ – the 21st Century version of London’s diesel Routemasters.

Late last year, it won a £50million order for 100 hydrogen and electric buses from Translink, Northern Ireland’s state-backed bus company.

Bamford, 43, son of JCB tycoon Lord Bamford, bought Wrightbus out of administration in 2019.

He said: ‘Introducing two new world-leading products is incredibly satisfying, and shows the marked determination we all have to make sure that this business is a worldleading success.’