SELBY MP Nigel Adams has called for councils and bus companies to buy electric buses made in Sherburn-in-Elmet and elsewhere in the UK, rather than China.

The former government minister, who moved the debate, told the House this week that the government in March announced a £200 million boost to support the roll-out of zero emission buses under the ZEBRA scheme.

The UK, he continued, has three main bus manufacturers: Alexander Dennis in Falkirk, Scotland and in Scarborough; Switch Mobility, formerly known as Optare, which is based in Sherburn-in-Elmet in the MP's constituency; and Wrightbus of Northern Ireland.

They have all developed electric buses but the UK has only 4 per cent of its 40,000 bus fleet electric, compared to China, which has 420,000 electric buses, about 98 per cent of the global electric bus fleet.

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China aimed to keep its global lead in making electric buses and was winning orders from the Government’s ZEBRA scheme, Mr Adams continued.

This included major orders from councils in Nottingham, Leicester, Cardiff and Newport.

It was ‘not right’ the government was funding China, something the Selby MP partly put down to Chinese buses having bigger batteries, which bus operators believed gave them a bigger range.

But British electric buses, have smaller, more efficient batteries, so can still go as far as Chinese models, he explained.

Councils demanding a specific battery capacity, as is the case in Nottingham is like asking about the size of an engine, rather than how far a vehicle can travel.

Furthermore, the Chinese models are not always cheaper, Mr Adams said.

Unless the UK government supported its domestic producers like other governments, British manufacturers could lose out to international competitors.

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Sherburn-based Switch, he said, has announced plans to invest £300m across the UK and India to develop its range of electric buses and vans, which will see it building double-deckers in India.

Ms Nusrat Ghani, the Minister for Science and Investment Security, agreed buying Chinese could harm UK bus producers, which was why the government has asked bus operators to supply details of how they are working with local councils.

However, the final purchasing decision was down to operators and councils.

"DFT is not able to require bidders to design their procurement process in a way that would explicitly favour UK bus manufacturers," she said.

But the minister told the House that due to the range available from UK bus manufacturers, there is no need for anyone to import electric buses.

“We need to help our local authorities to procure buses from the UK, she also said, adding she was keen to meet Mr Adams to discuss the issue.

In 2020, FirstBus bought Yorkshire-made buses for York's Park & Ride services.

Earlier this year, the company also announced it was buying 44 electric buses from Wrightbus of Northern Ireland.