Brisbane is set to have its first fully electric bus, which can be fully charged in 10 minutes, within two years.
brisbanetimes.com.au understands an official announcement will be made late next month and a prototype being built for Brisbane City Council is expected to be on the road within two years.
Brisbane-based firm Varley Electric Vehicles, based at Virginia, is in the design phase for the Brisbane electric bus project.
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Varley’s divisional manager for electric vehicles, John Bettini, and said both the council and the state government were involved in the project.
“We are developing an electric bus at the moment which is rather unique,” Mr Bettini said at this week’s Australia Electric Vehicles Conference.
“And I think that could come on line in the next two years. We are actually designing a bus for Brisbane City Council right now.”
Mr Bettini said Varley was working with several multinational and Australian firms and believed a prototype would be ready early in 2012.
“We are developing a fast-charge electric bus which is capable of being charged within 10 minutes,” he said.
“We are in the design stage and the prototype will be built early next year.”
Varley Electric Vehicles won a $250,000 state government grant in June to convert carbon-fuelled buses to electric.
A spokesman for Treasurer Andrew Fraser said he was unaware of a planned announcement, however council sources confirmed it had a tentative date set for late November.
The council and the state government co-fund Brisbane’s bus fleet.
