It’s electrifying: Zenobē delivers the first four electric vehicles for a family-owned coach fleet in the far north of Scotland
Moray, Scotland – June 2025
Family-run Maynes Coaches has welcomed three fully electric Pelican Yutong TCe12 coaches and one EVM Mini-eCoach to its Buckie depot, with more to come this summer. A further six coaches will be delivered in the Autumn to boost this all-electric fleet. The site is now home to five Zerova 150kW chargers, with charging supported by solar generation installed on the roof of the operator’s headquarters on the northeast coast of Scotland. Maynes’s satellite depot in Elgin is also live, with charging infrastructure installed and ready for the arrival of three new electric coaches later this year.
The vehicles on both sites have telematics installed so they can benefit from Zenobē’s smart charging software and be charged in the most cost and operationally efficient manner. The software will use multiple data points, including driver performance and real time vehicle and battery health monitoring to enable Maynes to utilise powerful data to fully optimise their operations.
The vehicle and charger financing, installation and ongoing maintenance for these projects have been made possible thanks to Transport Scotland’s ScotZEB 2 programme, led by Zenobē. The programme has provided the consortium, made up of leading fleet operators based across Scotland, with access to £41.7million of funding and the industry and technological expertise to deploy it quickly and efficiently.
John MacDonald, Senior Project Manager, Zenobē, said: “It’s been a pleasure to deliver the infrastructure works on behalf of Maynes’ to assist them on their journey to zero-emission coaching across the north of Scotland. Over a 6-month timeframe, works delivered included bringing a new supply connection to site from the local electricity grid, civils and electrical works to facilitate the new chargers as well as installation of a 200kW Solar PV to introduce a source of renewable energy for the depot’s consumption. It’s been pleasing to see the positive relationship built between our delivery team and the team at Maynes and we look forward to supporting them with future ZEV ambitions across their operations.”
Kevin Mayne, Operations Director, Maynes Coaches, said: “Thanks to ScotZEB 2, we will operate the most northerly zero-emission coach hire fleet in the UK, with charging infrastructure here at our depot in Buckie as well as our Elgin site and soon at our Orkney depot.“
“Works are now fully complete at Buckie and Elgin, where Zenobē’s delivery team installed Zerova chargers. In the interest of futureproofing the site and reducing operating costs, we also integrated 170kW solar PV into the depot to support vehicle charging. This is not an opportunity afforded equally across the UK, I must add. The Scottish Government understood the need for coaches to be included in ScotZEB 2 and to give coach operators access to funding, and our company is thankful for that.”
“My brother and I are generation four of Maynes Coaches – we are simply custodians of the family business and when we hand it over to the next generation, we have to make sure we hand it over safely and heading towards a sustainable future. With ScotZEB 2 funding and putting in zero-emission charging, I firmly believe that it is the right path for our family business. We are not in London, we are not in a major city – we are in northern Scotland with some of the harshest winters and wildest conditions, and it has already begun to prove that the time and investment is worth it.”
