Three cheers for the reinvented new New Bus Grant. It’s only been over 20 years since old New Bus Grant ceased.
The government has announced up to £30mil worth of biddable grants towards new buses, provided the new stock reduces emissions and improves air quality significantly. This, the government says, will give a fillip to manufacturers at a time of recession and cement the UK as the leading manufacturer of low carbon buses.
Because of the need to reduce emissions significantly, there’s a strong suspicion that new New Bus Grant will be achievable only through hybrid technology. Anything that assists in hybrid development is welcomed but to date it hasn’t proven itself. How likely outside London are fleet operators to invest in hybrid just at this point in time?
Nevertheless, the government is right to go for broke regarding hybrids. The more that are manufactured, the lower the costs will fall and the more reliable they will become. We all said the same thing about low floor buses: too expensive, too technical and no market but as soon as production numbers accelerated, costs fell in proportion.
The current European exhaust emissions standards have done their bit in terms of reducing emissions and there’s very little left that manufacturers can squeeze out of a standard diesel engine.
For example, compared to Euro II, Euro III (from 2001) reduced both particulates and NOx each by about a quarter. Euro IV (2006) knocked out some 80 per cent of particulates out. When Euro V formally comes in late this year, in practical terms it makes little difference to particulate emissions.
Which means we need a step change: the low carbon buses on which the government has its eye are said to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions by 30 per cent.
Friday, 3 July 2009
Euro IV and V v Hybrid
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5 comments:
One answer is to use older buses. Buses even 10-15 years old are less heavy and carry more passengers for their weight and length.
Go back to the 1960s and buses used 30% fuel...
How long is it before public sector spending cuts see this initiative scrapped?
I agree with anonymoous #1.
Just as a comparison, you could get about 9-10 mpg out of a Leyland Oly (Gardner engined).
Volvo B10M's can do about 12 mpg.
Modern chassis, lets say a Volvo B9TL which is a reworked, lowfloor Oly, does about 6 mpg while a modern coach like a B12B does about 9 mpg.
These are all rough figures, but all these daft emissions controls are part of the reason that fuel consumption has gone up. This first started with the Volvo Olympian which was very fuel thirsty compared to the VRs etc they were often used to replace.
Does the fact that most buses these days are now fully automatic have a bearing on performance?
I presume things like air-con also burn more fuel?
Is the weight a result of over-kill in safety? Compared with other passenger carrying road transport how do buses do for accidents?
Perhaps the nation is being the victim of its stupidity!
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