Waverley hoppa Community Transport is celebrating a major milestone in an exciting project to give one of its existing diesel minibuses a new lease of life as a fully operating electric vehicle.

The minibus, which began its working life as a diesel vehicle, has now been successfully converted to electric by hoppa’s project partner Clipper Automotive.

The successful conversion marks an important step forward in the project, demonstrating the potential to retrofit existing community transport vehicles, rather than replacing them with new, more expensive electric vehicles. 

The next stage of the project will see the converted bus undergo Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA) which is a detailed inspection carried out by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency. Once it has successfully completed IVA, the vehicle can be registered for road use and returned to hoppa for further testing before ultimately entering service.

Richard Davies, General Manager at Waverley hoppa Community Transport recently got to test drive the converted vehicle and says: “This is a hugely exciting milestone for the project and a great achievement for everyone involved. Seeing the vehicle successfully converted from diesel to electric demonstrates what can be achieved by taking an innovative approach to the future of community transport.

“There is still more work to do before the vehicle enters service, but reaching this stage brings us an important step closer.”

The project has significance beyond a single vehicle. For community transport providers across the sector, converting existing diesel vehicles to electric could offer a way to extend their working lives, reduce waste and emissions, and continue providing accessible and sustainable transport for local communities.

As the project moves into its next phase, Waverley hoppa will continue testing and evaluating the vehicle to understand how it performs in real-world community transport operations.

Charitable organisations interested in finding out more about the project, can email Richard Davies at richard@hoppa.org.uk.

See the moment, General Manager Richard drove the converted vehicle for the first time at https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dc_GoyQKKXG/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&stkn=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==