Australian-built electric bus heading to UK

‘It’s a dream for me,’ says company boss Scott Dunn

 
A demonstrator vehicle is already en route to the UK, and is due to arrive in mid-January

 
Australian bus builder Custom Denning is targeting the UK market, and a demonstration electric bus is currently being shipped to the UK.

Custom Denning, one of Australia’s oldest bus builders, is now owned by Scott Dunn, who began his career in the UK bus industry before moving to Australia in 2014. The company has designed and built a full-size, fully-electric single deck bus, which it plans to export to the UK.

The vehicle was on display at last month’s Australian British Infrastructure Catalyst, which took place in Australia. There Dunn spoke with Leon Daniels, the former boss of surface transport for Transport for London, for the Lunch with Leon podcast, which is produced in association with Passenger Transport.

Built in Western Sydney, Dunn said the 12-metre bus was fully stainless steel with European components and the build quality of an Australian product, where vehicles must be built for a 25-year minimum life.

 
Custom Denning already competes with Chinese imports, BYD and Yutong, so Dunn is confident that it can compete with Chinese products into the UK. One demonstrator vehicle is already en route to the UK, and is due to arrive in mid-January. Three more will arrive in mid-February.

“It’s a dream for me to build a vehicle where I live and export it back to my own country,” said Dunn. “It’s perfect for me.”

He added: “We are going to export from Australia in the short term but my ideal situation is that we build it locally in the UK for the UK market.”

Daniels speaks to a variety of guests on the podcast,including other familiar faces from the UK.

 
This article appears in the latest issue of Passenger Transport.

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