Australian bus body builder Volgren has put its first electric bus into production, launching the company’s move into zero-emission vehicle technology.
The prototype will be completed by the middle of June at Dandenong in Victoria, built on a BYD chassis and including 324kWh battery capacity with more than 250km range.
The first e-bus should be ready in August after testing, the company says. The prototype can be fully charged in four to five hours on depot charging.
Volgren has been investigating EVs for more than five years and the prototype has been a year in the making, business development manager Jon Tozer says.
“We’ve known for some time that the bus industry was about to go through its biggest transformation in three or four decades. And we wanted to approach this shift with the best information at our disposal. We wanted to understand the products, the technologies and the solutions available in the market before beginning our work in earnest.”
Tozer says the company wanted to produce its first e-bus from a “known quantity”.
“We didn’t want to conduct a science experiment or work with a conglomerate of part suppliers attempting to provide a solution. We wanted something that will work from the start.”
Tozer says that while the initial capital cost of the bus will be higher than a standard diesel, that’s not the full story.
“When you take into account the significant operation saving in maintenance and energy costs per kilometre, as well as the significant fall in the cost and increase in energy density of batteries over the last few years, we’re nearing the point where total cost of ownership will soon be the same as it is for a diesel, if it isn’t already.”
Industry response has been positive, Tozer says.
“More operators and agencies are looking to zero emissions buses for the first time and, since announcing this build we’ve been encouraged by the interest we’ve received from government and private operators.”
Tozer says that thanks to their long-standing partnership with Swiss manufacturer Hess, and other OEMs, Volgren has access to a range of e-bus technologies and types, including electric rigid, articulated and bi-articulated (rubber-tyred tram) buses. They also have access to a multitude of proven charge and battery technologies already in operation around the world.
Volgren has partnered with businesses that can provide infrastructure installation, grid connections and upgrades and funding and leasing models on the bus, batteries or infrastructure.
The company has an arrangement to provide 50 hybrid-electric buses to Melbourne public transport operator CDC Victoria.
Volgren Volgren signed the biggest bus supply deal in its 40-year history in March, extending its contract with Volvo and the Public Transport Authority (PTA) of Western Australia which would see 900 Transperth buses built on Volvo chassis at Volgren’s Perth factory and delivered over a decade, starting later this year.
