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Alexander Dennis announced that it will offer electric repowering solutions for its diesel buses in partnership with specialist engineering firm KleanDrive. The system is called AD Repower and will initially be available in the UK on the MMC-generation Alexander Dennis Enviro400 double decker, with a first pilot bus scheduled to be on the road in the first half of 2026. With sufficient demand, other models and other markets could follow.
Under the partnership, KleanDrive replaces the buses’ existing diesel engine and transmission with its plug and play electric drivetrain system and control software. A skid system houses a Voith Electrical Drive System (VEDS) motor and all power electronics, allowing for easy installation. VEDS is also used in Alexander Dennis’s next-generation electric buses, allowing operators to benefit from familiar and proven technology. Energy is stored in 352kWh CATL lithium-iron-phosphate batteries, for which KleanDrive expects a driving range on a single charge of 195 miles at 50% passenger occupancy. The AD Repower conversion maintains the Enviro400’s interior layout, allowing existing buses’ full seating capacity to be retained. KleanDrive CEO, Joe Tighe, said: “By repowering rather than prematurely replacing, we avoid throwing away a perfectly good vehicle and the carbon dioxide that is embedded within that. Our solution is a plug and play, modular drivetrain that replaces the existing engine and transmission and interfaces perfectly with the bus controls and instrumentation. It is designed to carry out the conversion at the fleet operator’s premises, which reduces time off the road and empowers the local technicians to carry out maintenance.”
