FirstGroup has continued planning for future large-scale deployment of battery-electric bus fleets by First Bus operating companies with the agreement of a £150 million green hire purchase finance facility.
The latest work will support the purchase of those buses, except for the batteries within them. The latter is covered by an earlier strategic joint venture with Hitachi to purchase traction batteries that was announced in November 2023.
Sizing of the green finance facility is sufficient to purchase up to 1,000 buses excluding their energy storage. FirstGroup says the arrangement is configured “to broadly match the battery arrangements within the Hitachi joint venture.”
Finance via the new facility will be through a syndicate of three banks. It is available for drawdown over three years “on a competitive fixed margin plus basis,” the group continues. “Funding under the facility will be provided in tenors of either seven or 10 years depending on the specific requirement at the time for each batch of vehicle bodies to be financed.”
Speaking about the electric bus finance agreement, FirstGroup Chief Executive Officer Graham Sutherland says: “The innovative green hire purchase facility that we have secured to support the purchase of electric buses represents another milestone for the group.
“We continue to work hard to secure and optimise available funding to deliver on our First Bus decarbonisation commitment, build out adjacent electrification opportunities, and create sustainable value for all our stakeholders.”
