Zhuzhou CRRC Times Electric, a subsidiary of China's leading train maker CRRC, has received its latest electric bus orders from Saudi Arabia and New Zealand.

The New Zealand order comes from NZ Bus, the country’s biggest urban bus company, which will put the 19 buses into service along the CityLink route in downtown Auckland.

NZ Bus, formerly Stagecoach New Zealand, is the country’s largest bus company, operating in Auckland and Wellington.

The Chinese bus maker has also received orders for another 20 buses from Saudi Arabia, with deliveries starting in June.

Saudi Arabia has grown into a very sizeable market for Chinese-made electric buses, with over ten thousand deliveries. In May of last year, China Yuchai International announced the delivery of 600 buses to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia's largest passenger company, Hafil Transportation, took delivery of the 12-metre buses, manufactured by Anhui Ankai Automobile and propelled by Yuchai engines.

And, last April, in another big order, 600 Ankai-manufactured buses were delivered to Saudi Arabia. Ankai has exported nearly 7,000 buses there for public transport, schools, tourism and pilgrimages, making it a major force in the country's road transportation system.

In the UK, Stagecoach is the biggest investor in hybrid-electric bus technology and has invested more than 1 billion pounds in new green buses over the past decade, many of them using Chinese technology.

In January 2019, Stagecoach took delivery of a fleet of buses supplied by the BYD ADL partnership from the southern English city of Guildford. BYD is a global leader in batteries, energy management and electric mobility, while ADL, the UK’s best-selling bus manufacturer, iwa a subsidiary of leading independent global bus manufacturer NFI Group.

On February 20, BYD Europe ADL jointly announced that one of West London’s best-known bus services, route 94, was going fully electric after the delivery of 29 pure electric, 100% emissions-free BYD ADL Enviro400EV double-deck buses. The vehicles are now entering service with operator London United, a subsidiary of RATP Dev.

This latest delivery from the BYD ADL partnership sees the total number of its electric buses in service climb to 269, including 200 BYD ADL Enviro200EV single-deck vehicles.