New Richmond bus depot development underway

Nelson Tasman’s buses will soon have a new home with development underway of a site in Richmond.

The new bus depot on Estuary Place, Richmond, which is currently being developed by SBL, will become the new home of the region’s eBus fleet.

Nelson City Council group infrastructure manager, Alec Louverdis, says while the site is currently only a concrete pad with chargers - it’s a site with ongoing development.

“SBL have a long-term plan to move their offices and maintenance onsite and to install and benefit from renewable sources,” he says.

“This will coincide with their long-term plan to repurpose the batteries on the bus when they reach the end of their commercial transport lifetime.”

The plan is for the batteries to be reused to store energy from renewable sources at the depot to charge buses or supply power to the depot.

The SBL site will be where the bus fleet start and finish their day.

With enough chargers for the full fleet, the buses will be charged onsite and will run their entire day on a full charge.

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“Purchasing 17 electric buses to make up the majority of our fleet meant making sure we have the infrastructure in place to store and charge the buses,” Alec says.

“We’re thrilled to work alongside SBL who have secured a location where all their buses will be stored and charged.”

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