The vehicle manufacturers’ trade body is calling for the more rapid introduction of cleaner vehicles, but which way is the wind blowing?
One would expect a trade association to fight its corner on behalf of its members, so it’s no surprise that the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) used its annual press briefing to argue that operators should invest more rapidly in new Euro 6 coaches and buses.
To back this up, it published a press release “calling on bus operators to take faster action on updating their fleets” saying that replacing London’s buses with Euro 6 vehicles could cut NOx emissions they produce by up to 75%. It adds that the switch would reduce London’s total NOx by 7.5%.
In truth, the call should be aimed at Transport for London (TfL), which specifies and chooses which buses to operate.
TfL’s latest figures show that only 20% of its 9,588 contracted fleet meets Euro 6, with 39% at Euro 5, and the remainder (just under half) at Euro 4 equivalent.
This illustrates the scale of the challenge that TfL would have to fund, if Mayor Khan’s ULEZ proposal for the whole of London to be Euro 6 from September 2019 goes ahead, and is a key reason why implementation may be softened.
Cross-selection
The SMMT gathered a number of its supplier members, and presented a panel with representatives of Eminox (Marketing Manager, Kathye Vicente), SMMT (Nigel Base, Commercial Vehicle Development Manager), BYD (Frank Thorpe, UK Country Manager), First UK Bus (Giles Fearnley, MD), Optare (Robert Drewery, Commercial Director) and Cummins (Peter Williams, Product Certification & Compliance Director).
The trade body also highlights the current derogation that allows new Euro 5 buses to be built, and calls again for it to be closed.
This requires a consultation, which like a number of transport matters, has been stuck in the Department for Transport (DfT) for three years. The SMMT is now confident that the ‘loophole’ will be closed in October.
In practice, only Optare remains as the major producer of Euro 5 buses, which account for virtually all its retail orders, and around 20% of annual UK registrations.
The reason is price. With retail customers typically being small independents, the extra capital cost of around £10,000 for a Euro 6 bus being a luxury they cannot afford.
Clean Air Zones
But it’s not all bad news for manufacturers, not least where the five Clean Air Zones – Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, Derby and Southampton by 2020 – are proposed, along with improvements for other large cities.
Alongside Euro 6, new developments for pure diesel are coming on stream, including Cummins’ stop-start engines, of which 1,000 are now in service and saving 10-15% in fuel.
“Shutting the engine down actually improves the temperature trace over the whole duty cycle, and therefore reduces NOx, as well as fuel consumption,” says Mr Williams.
Adds Mr Fearnley: “We already know that buses in urban areas can spend 15-20% of their time at bus stops, so the savings are potentially quite huge.”
This is despite an on-cost for stop-start, described as “modest” with a payback of less than a year.
Is Euro 7 coming?
Euro 7 is not on the agenda, says Mr Williams, but the Euro 6 regulation has extended to tighter control of emissions using on-board diagnostics (OBD), with three phases, the latest of which – Euro 6c – was implemented at the start of this year.
“We’re now working on Euro 6 Phase D,” says Mr Williams. “Not only does this have the existing high-performance requirements for NOx and low particulates (PM), there’s additional requirements for the OBD.
“At Cummins we’ve undertaken some product refresh at Euro 6c. For example we increased the power density and improved the fuel consumption. We didn’t stay still, and sit on our Euro 6 Phase A product.”
For those not yet up to Euro 6, Eminox offers hope other than complete re-engining with an “alternative route” to the emissions standard.
And this is before electric and bio-gas is considered, subjects that were also covered by the panel discussion.
Big opportunities
Adds Mr Fearnley: “The clean air agenda is a huge opportunity for commercial bus operators.
“It is the opportunity for the bus to show its real potential in meeting urban transport needs. We have huge congestion, as we know, that contributes to air quality issues.
- TfL vehicles fleet details at http://content.tfl.gov.uk/bus-fleet-audit-130117.pdf
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The world is changing. Says Mr Fearnley: “As an operator in many major towns and cities across the UK we are currently having conversations with senior politicians around the role of the bus.
“These would never have happened a year, or two years, ago as cities now realise they need air quality solutions. They see that buses can provide solutions very rapidly, compared with light rail or other schemes, and still provide the access to city centres that is so vital.”
