Eight of the 10 bids submitted to the second round of the Scottish Zero Emission Bus (ScotZEB2) challenge fund have been rejected, with scheme administrator the Energy Saving Trust (EST) having given no clarity on why that failure rate is so high.
The two remaining submissions – from lead applicants Rock Road and Zenobe, respectively – are still in play, with those parties having each been given until 19 January 2024 to resubmit what EST describes as “their final and best bid.”
However, sources close to ScotZEB2 have aired a belief that the maximum £58 million put to the scheme by the Scottish Government will now not be allocated in its entirety. They add that there is significant presence of zero-emission coach aspiration in the remaining bids, and note that optimism is high that those operators involved will gain funding.
ScotZEB2 has been described as the final round of public funding in Scotland towards zero-emission coaches and buses and their associated infrastructure, with an overarching aim that it will help to cement a commercial case for those vehicles.
EST’s website notes that the Rock Road and Zenobe bids scored highest of the 10 submitted. The Trust has not replied to questions asking why the initial rejection rate is at such a level.
A guidance document for ScotZEB2 shows that assessment is based on deliverability (30%), financial (40%), market transformation (20%), and wider community and decarbonisation benefit (10%).
Operators that were part of the rejected submissions have been advised that they may now seek to participate in the Rock Road and Zenobe bids, although those approaches are not open to new applicants to the scheme.
Stagecoach quickly advised in its interim results that the ScotZEB2 bids it was part of were unsuccessful “in their current form,” although the group has also confirmed that a recent order for Alexander Dennis Enviro100EV battery-electric buses for its fleets in Scotland is part-funded by the first round of ScotZEB and is thus unaffected.
Another of the rejected bids was led by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT), which sought £5.8 million from ScotZEB2 towards 43 battery-electric vehicles from minibuses to full-size single-deckers.
SPT would have contributed £10.9 million to the bid’s cost, although papers around the submission suggest that 43 zero-emission buses would be required to replace 41 diesel examples. SPT is described as the “lead financier” of its submission; terms and conditions of ScotZEB2 also require that at least one private financier is present in each consortium bid.
Those operators that were part of unsuccessful bids have been advised to move quickly if they wish to participate in the Rock Road or Zenobe work. Resubmitted bids will be judged against the same criteria and scoring matrix as before.
No date has been given for when winners will be announced. Provision to award no money from ScotZEB2 remains in play for the revised approach.
