Malaga bus depot to receive major EV upgrades

The Malaga depot will be the first in the State to receive major upgrades to support a large fleet of electric buses, which will have capacity to fully-charge 90 buses overnight.

The work follows the partial upgrade to the Joondalup depot in 2022, as part of a trial of four electric buses. 

Perth businesses Civcon and Gemtek have been awarded the contracts, valued at $12 million, to extend and realign the bus parking area and install EV charging equipment.

It is part of a $250 million initiative funded by the State and Federal Governments.

The award of the contracts comes as the first electric CAT bus prepares to enter formal passenger services within the week.

The bus will be among 18 new electric buses to be used on the Perth CAT bus network.

Electric buses have been operating in Perth since early 2022 when four were added to the Joondalup CAT route as part of a trial.

Since then, the quartet has carried more than 440,000 passengers and covered more than 380,000 kilometres, saving about 350 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in the process.

Further conversions of bus depots to electric charging will be rolled out to support the future production of electric buses.