The most common mistake we see with electrification is treating it as a vehicle purchase. It is a depot project with a vehicle attached, and the depot is usually the larger and slower part.

The grid connection

A single depot charger for a bus draws serious power. A fleet of them draws considerably more than most industrial sites are connected for.

The first question is not which charger to buy. It is what your site is currently connected for, what the network operator will allow you to draw, and what an upgrade costs and how long it takes. In some areas that upgrade is measured in years rather than months.

Chargers themselves

Depot chargers, cabling, switchgear, civil works to run the cable and mount the units, and the ongoing maintenance contract. This is a construction project with permits and lead times, not an equipment purchase.

What happens when a charger fails

Ask this early. If you have four buses and four chargers and one fails, you have three buses tomorrow. Redundancy costs money and is usually left out of the first budget.

Tariffs and when you charge

Electricity is not one price. Charging overnight on an off-peak tariff is a completely different proposition from topping up mid-afternoon. Demand charges — based on your highest draw in a period — can dwarf the energy cost if several buses charge simultaneously.

Sequencing chargers so buses charge in turn rather than together often saves more than any other single decision.

None of this means do not do it

It means budget the whole thing, get the network operator involved before you commit to a vehicle, and be realistic about the timeline.

And there is a middle option

A plug-in hybrid gives you electric running without requiring any of the above. You can charge it if you have somewhere to charge, and it works perfectly well if you do not. For an operator who wants to start reducing emissions while the depot question is worked through, it is a way of moving without betting the business on a grid connection.