About the project
Many governments who contract their bus services to the market have committed to zero emissions bus fleet. Existing procurement frameworks, however, are not well suited to zero-emission transitions. Research is needed to rectify this to secure best value outcomes and improved air quality within fiscal constraints.
Research is required to develop best value public procurement models for delivering battery-electric bus (BEB) fleets in contracted public transport environments due to the technological, financial, and institutional challenges associated with a shift in the capital and operating risk profiles. Conventional procurement approaches, designed for diesel fleets, inadequately capture the lifecycle costs, performance uncertainties, and infrastructure dependencies of BEBs.
Furthermore, the shift towards zero-emission mobility introduces complex multi-actor relationships among transport authorities, operators, infrastructure providers, and energy utilities, necessitating new forms of risk sharing and incentive alignments. Financing innovations—such as leasing, public–private partnerships, or Bus-as-a-Service models—also demand further empirical evaluation to determine their suitability under varying regulatory and market contexts.
Defining “best value” in this context extends beyond cost minimisation to encompass environmental sustainability, social impact, and long-term operational performance. A mixed-method research approach combining policy analysis, comparative case studies, stakeholder interviews, and lifecycle cost modelling is therefore likely to be needed.
This research will generate evidence-based frameworks for procurement design, performance evaluation, and contract management that support effective decarbonisation of public transport systems. The United Kingdom offers an excellent test bed for this research due to enabling legislation allowing fully contracted areas and partnerships, as the unit costs of BEBs and their equipment are rapidly coming down. Interested parties will be the UK government (and other governments where franchising is used), operators, leasing companies, OEMs and battery manufacturers.
