Consistent fuel savings after 15-month Allison Transmission trial commits ADL to retrofit scheme
Alexander Dennis (ADL) and Go-Ahead London have reported fuel economy improvements of up to 7.13% in its real-world trials of an ADL Enviro200 midibus retrofitted with Allison Transmission’s latest fully automatic bus transmission, the T 2100 xFE, and its intelligent FuelSense 2.0 software.
xFE incorporates a newly designed torque converter lockup clutch, enabling first gear lock up at low speeds.
When coupled with FuelSense 2.0, which uses a real-time learning algorithm to balance fuel consumption and performance, Allison says it is ideally suited for transit and city buses.
Average fuel savings across seasons were 4.37% according to the 15-month study.
Trials began in August 2018 and are ongoing. Since installing the hardware, Go-Ahead has predicted the technology can cut fuel bills by up to £2,000 a year.
Savings were first measured before the xFE retrofit with Allison’s first-generation FuelSense Software.
Consistent savings mean ADL has formulated an upgrade programme for UK customers running Allison Transmissions. If the technology is retrofitted to each of the 14 buses in Go-Ahead’s Stockwell depot, where the Enviro200 operates, it could cut fuel costs by £28,000, as well as save over 27,000kg of CO2 per year, says Allison.
Go-Ahead London Engineering Director Richard Harrington says: “This was a realistic and rigorous trial on the roads of one of the world’s busiest cities.
“We were interested to see how, through configuration of the transmission software, operators can choose their own balance between fuel economy and performance, and we were impressed by the fuel savings.”
