Recent growth meant BLK Auto had a new range of alternative fuel buses ready to steal the show at the Expo.
BLK Auto’s green vision is coming to fruition. Alongside its wide range of vehicles on display at the Bus & Coach Expo, BLK Auto had a special announcement to make in Sydney. After plenty of preparation, BLK Auto managing director Jason Pecotic stood proudly in front of the first HDrive bus to hit the Australian market.
“This is our greatest achievement so far,” Pecotic told ABC. “HDrive is about to launch as its own brand and here at the Expo we’re launching the HDrive range of vehicles.”
The 7.5-metre battery electric CitiBus took pride of place at BLK Auto’s stand. Decked in light blue and a livery of green leaves, the first HDrive bus on display is proof of the brand’s environmental direction.
After receiving the distribution opportunity for HDrive buses half a year ago, Pecotic says he took time to begin initiating the roll out of the buses and trucks.
“We were lucky to sell two hydrogen trucks last week,” Pecotic says. “One was to PepsiCo and the second was a waste management truck that went to JJ Richards.
“Moving forward, HDrive will become its own entity for hydrogen vehicles only, such as this bus.”
Pecotic says HDrive represents the wider brand of Wisdom Motor that operates out of China. Wisdom Motor was created in 2019 when Su Liqian entered into a partnership with Hong Kong operator Templewater. This resulted in the HDrive trucks and buses that BLK Auto are beginning to unveil and deliver.
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“The HDrive bus we have here comes courtesy of Su’s experience in the Chinese market, as well as his experience with Bonluck buses and BCI,” Pecotic says. “We’re also showing a HDrive vehicle leant to us from Hong Kong that we thought looked like a van, so we had it wrapped to look like a prison bus for some variation.”
Pecotic says the HDrive vehicles will act as an on demand bus for operators around Australia. With the new age bus shown to many at the Expo, Pecotic says the vehicle has received a huge amount of interest as trials are about to commence with potential customers in New South Wales and beyond.
“Certain transport bodies have come to us and expressed their interest to buy the HDrive bus off us and lease it to operators,” Pecotic says. “The bus can go from a 12-seater through to a 24-seater.
“It’s narrow and has previously been sold in a diesel variation. It’s nice to have it out in the market after waiting for so long.”
Alongside the HDrive models, BLK Auto brought the best of its recent developments to the Showgrounds. This included its double decker coach, its President 2 model and its electric City Star bus.
With BLK Auto continuing to produce a chassis for its partnership with Volgren, Pecotic says the brand will emphasise its focus on local content to provide high quality products to the Australian market.
Alongside the newly released HDrive, it makes for a busy 2023 for Pecotic and BLK Auto.
“Moving forward, we’ll be bringing the electric and hydrogen chassis in to work with local content,” Pecotic says. “We’ll be building both our BLK Auto and HDrive products up.
“This Expo has been terrific to get across to the industry the variety of buses we have available from both the HDrive and BLK Auto ranges.”