This strategic partnership aims to expand zero-emission transport options by retrofitting existing diesel buses with modular electric drivetrains, offering a cost-effective and rapid pathway to fleet decarbonisation.

This agreement opens a scalable route to electrification for fleet operators through repowering. It offers a retrofit approach that maximises existing assets, cuts costs, and accelerates the shift to zero-emission transport without disruption or long lead times.

For the operator, this strategy extends vehicles' lifecycles and dramatically reduces carbon emissions whilst decreasing the total cost of ownership for the bus.

According to Kleanbus, conversions cost just 20% of the cost of a new battery-electric bus and offer, when completed, significantly lower emissions to the diesel powered vehicle it replaces.

This investment will support the expansion of KleanDrive’s retrofitting capacity and the increased manufacturing capacity of its proprietary advanced ePowertrain technology used to repower diesel ICE buses to electric drive.

The UK startup has set up an umbrella company, KleanDrive, to expand into new repowering segments including light-, medium- and heavy-duty trucks and marine vessels.

The actual repowering has been made possible with the first Kleanbus “advanced modular electric platform,” (a modular driveline package) which combines battery-electric powertrain components from Tier 1 suppliers with its own integration technology and proprietary software, with a conversion taking just 2 weeks once a system has been designed and tested.

The repower application of an Optare Solo prototype has 280kW/h of battery capacity (DC charging only) and features a dual-motor solution from Advanced Electric Machines.