Welcome back to Switched On, a series of articles helping operators to reduce the lifetime costs of running electric coaches and buses.
This month, we sit down with Sean O’Sullivan, David Conway and Anthony Carver-Smith of Nottingham City Transport to get their perspective on going live with an electric fleet having recently celebrated 750,000 passengers carried via electric services.
Thank you to Sean, David and Anthony for their time and insights on the challenges and benefits of switching to electric vehicles and for providing their own advice to operators at an earlier stage in their electric fleet journey.
As always, if you have any questions, do get in touch.
Steven Meersman, Co-Founder and Director, Zenobe.
A springboard to bus electrification
When Nottingham City Council announced in 2019 that it had an ambition of being a carbon neutral city by 2028, Nottingham City Transport (NCT) knew it would play a key role in realising the council’s aims.
Fast forward to July 2024, and thanks to a successful Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas bid with Nottingham City Council, 24 of NCT’s 62 fully electric Yutong single-decker buses are on the road. The operator recently celebrated 250,000 zero-emission kilometres.
NCT is on track to have a fully electric single-deck fleet within the next 18 months, with 24 more due in early 2025 and a further 14 in 2026.
Season O’Sullivan, NCT Head of Engineering, describes the council’s 2028 target as the “springboard” that kickstarted its bus electrification journey. “We have 143 gas vehicles which are ultra-low emission, but our diesel fleet obviously wasn’t – so that was the springboard for looking into what solutions were out there to meet that target.”
Starting the journey – the initial concerns and considerations
Before settling on electrification as a means of achieving an ultra-low carbon bus fleet, the team at NCT explored other options, as Sean explains.
“Hydrogen was considered early on. Our view on hydrogen is that you have got to use electricity to create hydrogen and then turn it back from hydrogen into electricity to drive the vehicle. In essence, each time you transfer that energy, you get a loss, so it didn’t quite make sense for us.
“Other operators have tried it and had problems, and the vehicles are, for now at least, very technically complex.”
Once electric vehicles were identified as the preferred option, NCT quickly reached consensus that range anxiety was the biggest challenge to overcome, as Head of Marketing and Projects Anthony Carver-Smith explains.
“For us, one of the big concerns and big issues to address has always been ensuring that we could get a vehicle that could do a full day’s service. We like to send a bus out in the morning and not see it again until the evening.”
To allay the nervousness around range, the team watched the data provided by Zenobē’s software platform closely as the vehicles went into operation. “It is fair to say that we all had a little bit of anxiety for the first couple of days, particularly around range. We were looking at the telematics every five minutes, looking at the dashboards to see what switches were pressed and what the temperatures were,” says Sean.
He continues: “On the first day we noticed that two vehicles on the same route were performing very differently. It turned out that that driver had not engaged the regeneration switch (enabling the bus to regain kinetic energy that would otherwise be lost during braking) and had the heaters on, so they were burning power quite quickly.
“Since going live, initially we were getting 0.99km per kW. The next period we got 1.05km per kW and the last period we were running at 1.09km per kW. The data tells us that initially, the drivers were probably a little bit heavy footed with the vehicles and there may have been an element of the vehicles settling in, but we are getting better performance now than we did in the first period.”
Driver engagement and training is crucial to successful go-live
Anthony believes that strong engagement with drivers and other staff early in the process provided peace of mind during a time of immense change.
“There was some concern and apprehension. Drivers had questions about how the vehicles work, what is the best way to drive them because they are a different type. We made sure that we engaged with the trade union for the drivers early on. They came with us to Pelican Bus and Coach in Castleford and were involved in designing the cab layout.”
What followed was a programme of driver familiarisation with the new vehicles where drivers were given the opportunity to operate them with and without passengers aboard. However, it is continued engagement that Anthony believes was most important during the process.
“The drivers were also involved in the launch of the new fleet in Old Market Square in Nottingham, along with the engineering team. These are their vehicles, and drivers have bought into that, so it has been really positive.”
As for the buses themselves, there is inevitably a period of adjustment to a brand-new vehicle after years of driving diesels, as Sean explains.
“The drivers did not particularly have any concerns that it was electric. They wanted to be familiar with the vehicles and how they drove. They were quite happy that we had considered zero-emission and newer buses.”
Along with calendar ageing, harsh acceleration and braking reduce a vehicle’s efficiency, increasing energy throughput in the battery and speeding degradation of that asset. This can be countered by the drives engaging with regenerative braking.
During the familiarisation process, regenerative braking was again identified as an area for drivers to receive additional training and information, including engaging with the “regeneration factor,” as Anthony explains.
“Regenerative braking puts quite a lot of energy back into the batteries, so explaining that to drivers and how it works was very important. Looking at the data now, the buses are all coming back with decent charge levels at the end of the day.”
In addition to driver training, energy throughput of the batteries can be monitored using a Zenobē software platform, Hekaton. It has shown that driver training and performance tracking can lead to a 20% improvement in vehicle efficiency.
Embrace the similarities rather than the differences
For engineers maintaining the new fleet, Sean has encouraged the team to look at the similarities between diesel and electric vehicles, rather than the differences.
“We have made a great deal of noise about the fact that most of the electric vehicle is exactly the same as a diesel. When you look at the steering, suspension, the body electrics, seats, glass, trim – all that is the same. The bit that they haven’t had the experience with is the drive motor and the battery management system.
“We have put most people through an Institute of the Motor Industry level two training course in preparing heavy electric/hybrid vehicles for repair, and 15 of our technicians have been through level four training in the diagnosis, testing and repair of electric/hybrid vehicles and components.”
Sean also highlights the importance of engaging with wider team members who do not necessarily work on the vehicles, but who may interact with them in different ways.
“We have put some bus inspectors and stores people through the training too. They may at some point come into contact with the batteries. That may be offloading them from a vehicle or taking out old batteries and putting them back in. They have now got an understanding of what the component is and the risks around it.”
On whether the role of the maintenance team will change drastically as electric vehicles replace diesel ones, Sean again highlights the similarities between the vehicles. “There is going to be less wear on components like brake pads, but when you look at the steering and suspension, wheel bearings – all of that is the same.
“Most of the work on a diesel or gas bus from an engineering point of view isn’t on the engine. Most of the defects we deal with are broken seats, panel damage, or ticket issuing equipment. It is amazing when you look at the similarities rather than the differences. There have been a lot of questions, and the way to overcome them is through training and information. That is what we have tried to give.”
Final bus electrification advice – and busting EV myths
For Sean, his advice to other operators is simple: Get ahead on the infrastructure and everything else will follow.
Getting some equipment installed early in the process means that drivers are trained on an electric bus sooner. That early intervention will prepare them to reap the cost benefits from efficient driving sooner rather than later. “For me, getting ahead with the infrastructure is key. For example, when training drivers, you want to train them on your own EVs. For phase one, we had to have small-capacity temporary chargers installed to facilitate that.”
Head of Operations David Conway advocates a phased approach to launching an electric fleet. “This is the second business where I have staggered the launch into service of electric buses. You give yourself a chance to make sure everything is in place and works before you start doing it in large numbers.”
To finish, the group discussed the number one EV myth that they would like to bust. Again, the team were quick to reach consensus. “It has got to be safety,” says Sean. “The technology is tried and tested now. Newport Transport had its first electric bus years ago, so that says a lot about the technology.
“Electric vehicles match what bus operators need. We know that our vehicles go out in the morning. We know what time they go, how many miles they will operate, and that lends itself well to EV technology. They are the future, and we will look back in a number of years and it will be our bread and butter.”
With 24 vehicles now on the road, NCT and Zenobē will soon embark on phase two of the rollout of the operator’s electric fleet. Another 24 are due in early 2025 and 14 more in 2025. We are looking forward to revisiting the conversation with Sean, David and Anthony for more insight as they reach the next milestone of their fleet electrification strategy.