Reading Buses orders 24 Enviro400EVs from Alexander Dennis
The 24 new Alexander Dennis Enviro400EV buses will be the first electric buses in the Reading Buses fleet. The purchase was made possible by a successful application for funding from the second round of the UK government’s Zero Emission Regional Bus Areas programme (ZEBRA 2). An order volume or even the amount of potential funding is not specified.
The new electric buses are to be used on the busy routes 17 and 21 from 2025. According to Alexander Dennis, they should be able to run on both routes for a whole day without any problems. This will be made possible by a 472 kWh battery. This is the largest option for the Enviro400EV. The manufacturer gives the maximum range for this variant as 260 miles (approx. 418 kilometres). The model designed by ADL is also available with a 354 kWh battery. However, Reading Buses has not opted for this configuration. The electric buses will be charged at the Reading Buses depot, which will be equipped with 13 fast chargers that can charge two vehicles at a time. No details are available.
“We have been undertaking extensive testing of demonstrators from a number of suppliers. The two things of paramount importance were the experience for the customers and experience for our drivers, before we considered the technical side of things. Of all the demonstrators, the new Alexander Dennis Enviro400EV has the best layout for customers on board, and the drivers who tested it were very impressed,” said Robert Williams, CEO of Reading Buses.
With the new generation, ADL is referring to the version of the Enviro400EV designed under its sole responsibility – apart from the electric bus cooperation with BYD – whose market launch was announced in November last year. The small Enviro100EV model also went on sale at the same time. ADL had previously unveiled both models at the Euro Bus Expo in Birmingham in 2022. They are based on a new Group platform for BEVs and FCEVs, which, according to ADL, incorporates ‘the findings of the entire NFI Group.’
Update 9 February 2026
The electric buses have entered service and are used on the flagship routes purple 17 and claret 21, the operator states. While most of them look like the rest of the fleet, some received a more special design. “One of them has been given a special ‘ZEBRA’ livery, with branding on the bus that reads ‘Zero Emission Buses for the Reading Area’. A second is finished in ‘warming stripes’ that show how Berkshire’s average temperatures have risen over the last two centuries,” Alexander Dennis writes in its press release.
The vehicles are fitted with the heavy-duty variant of the Driventic Vehicle Electrical Drive System (VEDS) and a 472 kWh battery pack. To charge the buses, the company installed 13 fast-chargers with two charging points each at Reading Buses’ Great Knollys Street depot.
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