By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.
Accept
routeonerouteonerouteone
  • News
    • Show all
    • Awards & Events
    • Deliveries
    • Environment
    • Exhibitor News
    • Euro Bus Expo 2024
    • Features
    • Legal
    • Minibus and minicoach
    • Operators
    • Opinion
    • People
    • Suppliers
    • Vehicles
  • Vehicles
    • Find a Vehicle
    • ZEV Comparison Tool
    • Sell a Vehicle
    • Vehicle Seller Dashboard
  • Insights
  • Careers
  • Events
    • British Tourism & Travel Show
    • Euro Bus Expo
    • Innovation Challenge
    • Livery Competition
    • routeone Awards
  • Advertise
  • Contact
    • Share your news
    • Subscribe
    • Update Subscription Details
  • Latest Issue
  • SIGN UP
Search
© 2024 routeone News. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Bus retrofitting: Looking to the past for a zero-emissions future
Share
Font ResizerAa
routeonerouteone
Font ResizerAa
Search
  • News
    • Show all
    • Awards & Events
    • Deliveries
    • Environment
    • Exhibitor News
    • Euro Bus Expo 2024
    • Features
    • Legal
    • Minibus and minicoach
    • Operators
    • Opinion
    • People
    • Suppliers
    • Vehicles
  • Vehicles
    • Find a Vehicle
    • ZEV Comparison Tool
    • Sell a Vehicle
    • Vehicle Seller Dashboard
  • Insights
  • Careers
  • Events
    • British Tourism & Travel Show
    • Euro Bus Expo
    • Innovation Challenge
    • Livery Competition
    • routeone Awards
  • Advertise
  • Contact
    • Share your news
    • Subscribe
    • Update Subscription Details
  • Latest Issue
  • SIGN UP
Follow US
© 2024 routeone News | Powered by Diversified Business Communications UK Ltd
- Advertisement -
-
routeone > Bus > Bus retrofitting: Looking to the past for a zero-emissions future
BusCoachEngineeringFeaturesTop StoryVehicles

Bus retrofitting: Looking to the past for a zero-emissions future

Paul Halford
Paul Halford
Published: July 16, 2023
Share
Ralph Hosier is putting 30 years of experience in the automotive industry into coach and bus retrofits
Ralph Hosier is putting 30 years of experience in the automotive industry into coach and bus retrofits
SHARE

Retrofitting diesel vehicles could supplement the manufacture of new electrics in the quest for decarbonisation, believes start-up ZEEbus

The UK bus sector’s journey towards zero-emissions appears on the face of it to be motoring. According to Chatrou CME Solutions data published in March, the country led the EU27 (the EU plus UK, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) in terms of new registrations of battery-electric buses.

Contents
New to the scene The case for government funding Next steps for ZEEbus 

However, the total of 685 electric registrations last year is put into perspective by the overall tally of around 40,000 existing buses and the government’s plan to end the sale of all new non-zero-emission buses by 2032 at the latest. 

A Transport Committee report published in March this year said more urgency was needed by government in relation to the zero-emission target. It highlighted that only 4% of Britain’s bus fleet as of April 2022 ran on either electric or hydrogen.  

Although production of new electric vehicles is being ramped up all the time, it could be that diesel-to-electric retrofits will need to play a significant role when it comes to the decarbonisation targets of not only the government but individual operators. 

A number of companies specialise in taking mid-life diesel coaches and buses and converting them to run on battery-electric or hydrogen. Norfolk-based Equipmake is one of them, repowering 12 First York buses that are being put into service. Meanwhile, Kleanbus in Scarborough has produced a prototype.

zeebus
ZEEbus unveiled its ‘proof of concept’ Volvo B5LH version to operators in May

New to the scene 

ZEEbus is a new rival to these and routeone was invited along to its launch in May in which its preproduction “proof of concept” vehicle, a former Transport for London Volvo B5LH, was demonstrated to representatives from several operators at an airfield. 

Although ZEEbus was set up as recently as last year, its management team has a wealth of experience. Chief Executive Officer Ralph Hosier has behind him 30 years of research and development in the car industry, with particular interests in prototypes and electrification.

A chartered engineer and motoring writer, in recent years his business Motor Skills has offered electric vehicle engineering training to bus fleet operators. Chief Technical Officer Gordon Mockett brings to the table a vast knowledge of the bus sector, including experience of repowering conversions. 

Ralph, who has appeared on TV shows such as Supercar Megabuild and Scrapyard Supercar, has much respect for the companies already offering retrofits. However, he adds: “Our approach is slightly different. We take well known chunks like the motor and battery-management system and integrate our unique pieces of engineering.

“We use well known suppliers for the battery modules and then house them in our own packs, which we get homologated. That means we can apply these technologies to any shape of vehicle.”  

Gordon agrees there is plenty of room in an expanding market. “The demands of pursuing the government objectives and for new vehicles could be quite significant, so when it comes to recycling a bus that’s still got a useful life in it, although it’s a diesel or a hybrid, there’s a market and there’s room for one, two or even three providers to pursue it.” 

ZEEbus says that, eventually, once a prototype for a particular model of vehicle is completed, a conversion could take around two weeks and cost about half the amount of a new equivalent.

The business, which has what it calls one of the UK’s leading battery systems experts in Nigel Taylor, will offer various battery options according to requirements. Ralph adds that the company could potentially revamp battery installations in vehicles it has refitted to either cater for changed service commitments or to replace old, underperforming cells.

The current demonstration vehicle has a Voith Electrical Drive System, but ZEEbus says it could instead be built on the ZF CeTrax electric central drive unit. 

Sustainability should be a factor when considering retrofitting, Ralph believes. “There’s 12 tonnes of bus here and we’re changing two tonnes of it, so the rest of that is kept and we’re making much better use of stuff we’ve already got. I think, from a sustainability point of view, there’s a very good argument for it.” 

The case for government funding 

That’s partly the reason some believe that, against a backdrop of large government funding for new buses via Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA), some revenue should be made available for retrofitting.  

The second round of the Scottish Zero Emission Bus challenge fund, Scotland’s equivalent of ZEBRA, will offer grants to successful bidders of up to £50,000 towards repowers, but no equivalent funding is available in England or Wales.  

Ralph argues: “If all the bus companies decided they were going to throw away our existing buses and buy new electric ones, there wouldn’t be enough manufacturing capability to produce that many electric buses. 

“I think the funding for new electric is really important, but I think there is also an important area of funding required for retrofitting because of that sustainability angle.” 

Gordon adds: “Retrofits will certainly help the government meet that target — whether they provide infrastructure to charge up all vehicles on that timescale, a lot of people have their doubts.”

ZEEbus promises a flexible offeringwhen it comes to battery capacity
ZEEbus promises a flexible offering when it comes to battery capacity

Next steps for ZEEbus 

ZEEbus’s next goal is to move on from the proof-of-concept model to produce a prototype based on a different vehicle and then, from around October, work with a potential customer to have it tested on-route. With a current engineering staff of 11, the business will be looking to scale up and ramp up production from early next year. 

It is open to the idea of repowering coaches, with Ralph adding they could in some ways prove easier than buses. He feels that hydrogen fuel cell would probably be preferable for coaches and ZEEbus is able to offer that. 

The likes of ZEEbus will have obstacles to overcome to persuade operators and local authorities to choose the repower option. One operator told routeone it did not consider retrofitting to be value for money.  

However, the market exists with operators that can be convinced. Kleanbus recommends vehicles aged 5-10 years are suitable for retrofits. Between 2008 and 2013, Transport for London decommissioned ,vehicles of this age. This represents 14% of the size of its current fleet and weighs against the approximately 1,900 new buses since put into service. 

“Clearly it’s a viable thing,” says Ralph. “Now we’re just trying to work out how we can make it work commercially for all the operators.” 

TAGGED:retrofit
Share This Article
Facebook LinkedIn Threads Email Copy Link
Previous Article 502617_DFT_BusPass_GreenSpaces_Social_1x1 Government launches campaign to get free bus pass users back
Next Article arriva bus We must raise local awareness of bus’s plight
- Advertisement -

Latest News

Temsa HD12 and HD13 delivered to Cresta Coaches under Asset Alliance rental deal
Temsa pair join Cresta Coaches on Asset Alliance rental agreement
Deliveries
Go-Ahead London – Managing Director
Careers Jobs
andy burnham tfgm £15.6 billion (1) The funding announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves today (4 June) has been allocated to several combined mayoral authorities to use on rail, tram, road and bus infrastructure. Transport for Greater Manchester revealed today that part of the £2.5 billion it will receive will go towards making the Bee Network fully battery-electric by 2030. An as-yet undecided portion of that will support a planned investment in 1,000 new zero-emission buses over that period, the mayoral authority said. That is part of plans to build the UK's "first fully integrated, zero-emission public transport system", with trams and trains also set to benefit. Liverpool City Region's already announced BRT system is among the projects to which its £1.6 billion will be allocated. Under those plans - due for realisation by 2028 - a high-speed network will be served by articulated buses which are modelled on the 'Glider' in Belfast. It is due to link Liverpool city centre with John Lennon Airport, and Liverpool FC and Everton FC's respective stadia along three routes. Although the model of bus has not been confirmed, a Van Hool Exqui.City on loan from Belfast was last year used as a demonstrator. That 18m vehicle can accommodate around 30% more passengers than a typical bus and has three sets of double doors. The funding will also go towards buses elsewhere in the city as the region heads towards franchising services by 2027. Liverpool Mayor Steve Rotheram with a 'Glider' which was on loan from Belfast last year - an example of the sort of bus which could serve the new BRT Bus services in the East Midlands region will be boosted by the funding, thanks to the £2 billion handed to it today by the government. Some of that allocation will be used for a rapid transit network on the Trent Arc between Nottingham and Derby. Between the two cities, the Freeport, Infinity Park Investment Zone and Ratcliffe-on-Soar will also benefit from the improved bus services. South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority's newly announced commitment towards bus franchising has been boosted by £350 million in funding as part of that region's allocation. The funding for West Yorkshire will help build new bus stations in Bradford and Wakefield. Likewise, the Tees Valley Mayoral Authority will put its sum towards a new £15 million bus station in Middlesbrough. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander says: "Today marks a watershed moment on our journey to improving transport across the North and Midlands – opening up access to jobs, growing the economy and driving up quality of life as we deliver our Plan for Change. "For too long, people in the North and Midlands have been locked out of the investment they deserve. With £15.6bn of government investment, we’re giving local leaders the means to drive cities, towns and communities forward, investing in Britain’s renewal so you and your family are better off."
TfGM’s all-electric bus plan boosted by new £15.6 billion package
News
Local Transport Minister opens First Bus electric depot in Hengrove
Local Transport Minister opens First Bus electric depot in Hengrove
Bus
- Advertisement -
-

routeone magazine is the indispensable resource for professional UK coach, bus and minibus operators. The home of vehicle sales and the latest bus and coach job vacancies, routeone connects professional PCV operators with complete and unrivalled news coverage.

  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • GDPR Policy
  • Sustainability
  • Advertise
  • Latest Issue
  • Share Your News
routeonerouteone
Follow US
© 2024 routeone News | Powered by Diversified Business Communications UK Ltd