A YORK sightseeing bus has been given an electric makeover.

The city sightseeing bus, operated by Transdev, is one of the first double decker to be converted from diesel to pure electric with lithium ion batteries, similar to those used by mobile phones.

The council was awarded £75,433 last year to convert the 15-year old City Sightseeing bus to fully electric drive, after successfully bidding for the Department for Transport’s (DfT) Clean Bus Technology Fund.

The bus will travel all day without needing to charge.

The electric retrofitted bus will eliminate the emission of 33 tons of CO2 and more than 535kg of poisonous NOx per year and will also reduce operating costs of the vehicle by more than £20k per year.

Richard Jackson at Transdev, said “Thousands of tourists and residents travel on our popular City Sightseeing buses every year so it’s fantastic news that through this funding we’ll be able to offer an even better travelling experience, whilst at the same time helping to improve air quality in York by converting to an electric bus."