Bus Stop has worked with its manufacturing partner King Long to unveil a unique vehicle designed to support the industry with a well-built and great value offering
A lot can happen in four years. In the timeframe between Olympic Games, the Bus Stop Group has assembled an extensive range of electric bus solutions.
Starting with the electric EVolution chassis and its high-floor school and charter bus, Bus Stop has also worked to package the EVolution Chassis with local content and bodybuilding partner Volgren.
In the latest addition to its ever-expanding electric bus fleet, Bus Stop has now released a point of difference with the next stage of its zero-emissions bus evolution in the EVolution Complete, a completely built King Long electric model.
While doing so, Bus Stop has specified the best possible components for the EVolution Complete in a bid to challenge the historical perception of fully built, imported Chinese buses.
“Currently we have the country’s most comprehensive range of zero-emissions buses,” Bus Stop CEO and director Pete White told ABC.
“The new low floor ZEB is known as the EVolution Complete and is a fully imported body and chassis designed in Australia and manufactured to Australian standards by global bus manufacturer King Long.”
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As the nation’s newest fully electric bus, the EVolution Complete is a milestone for the Bus Stop Group in Australia. White is no stranger to developing imported buses before this new foray – his respected family has spent years developing electric buses for various alternative brands.
On this new model, White’s team devised a strategy to work with a small group of operators to delve deep into what a new zero-emissions bus could do differently in order to ensure that the solution presented was best in class.
“We researched and surveyed the core requirements that fed into the design scope across charging, product and site infrastructure,” White says.
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“Customer requirements and needs must always come first. After four years of design, testing and refinement, we’ve brought together the most sought-after components from Europe and China at game-changing value.”
White says the EVolution Complete includes as standard the finest components, such as VDO Continental Electronics, CATL batteries (with thermal runaway protection), Thermo King electric air-conditioning and European ZF axles – all elements that are global leaders in their fields.
Yet White and the Bus Stop team went one step further on its journey to become unique in the local market. This resulted in the EVolution Complete model delving deeper into the operator’s preferences for aftersales support.
“We have specified, as standard, the highest level of on-site aftersales support for our CATL batteries as we found it important for operators,” White says.
“Our research identified that battery performance was consistently in the top five considerations for ZEB purchase. It isn’t commonly known that when the OEM purchases LFP battery packs from a supplier, such as CATL, they select a level of aftermarket support priced accordingly.
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“It makes us confident in saying our ZEBs unequivocally have the highest level of aftersales support across all brands and receive a superior priority level.”
White says the EVolution range is the only ZEB product available in Australia to offer CATL A Level after-sales support, which comes with premium on-site battery support from CATL themselves. The alternative is self-warranty by the supplier, which White says is not ideal for fleet operators.
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Alongside selecting premium components at the highest level of paid warranty support available, the EVolution Complete has options to go to a premium level for customers wanting to maximise the bus’s uptime.
Bus Stop Sales general manager of national fleets Stephen Long says this same meticulous approach was applied when it came to the selection of components.
“While these fine finishes are provided at a price premium, the business has committed to ensuring our electric bus options offer excellent support and reliability to the Australian market,” Long told ABC.
“From the interior of the vehicle to the layout of its 43 passenger seats and the build quality, it’s second to none.
“This model is centred around the messages of the best value in the market, available at scale quickly and able to meet the ambitious targets of city, state and federal governments.”
Long and White agree that a quick look at the bus’s interior has proven that this careful approach to designing this new bus was worthwhile.
Bus Stop is now excited that the EVolution Complete complements its local content product developed with Volgren.
“We are proud to support the Bus Stop team to bring a range of leading e-Bus solutions to the Australian market,” King Long Australian country manager Harvey Zheng told ABC.
The EVolution Complete also features the King Long Safety Solution (KLSS) integrated into the CATL batteries to limit thermal runaway incidents. White says this option is world-class based and is tested among many of the 100,000 plus King Long electric solutions operating globally.
The King Long Safety Solution uses nitrogen cooling in the battery system to maximise the suppression and extent of a thermal incident.
When releasing the new EVolution Complete, White expects Bus Stop’s ability to deliver these electric buses at scale to be crucial to success. He says Bus Stop has a significant opportunity to provide the fully imported vehicle as a great alternative and that delivery numbers and potential would only be limited by operator demand.
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“Our motivation was to offer the market the widest array of electric vehicle options to have a solution for all customer needs,” White says.
“We fully support local production and believe the hype around drivable knockdown (DKDs) ZEBs is just that.”
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White’s goals with Bus Stop centre around supporting the local industry. With the EVolution Complete product now sitting side by side with the EVolution Volgren model, Bus Stop is looking forward to growing its electric dream.
“We have invested heavily to deliver the most comprehensive range of bus solutions that offer excellent values as a fully built ZEB and maximise local build content alternatively,” White says.
“We’re certainly still working on electric bus releases. Our research highlights the demand for different varieties of electric bus solutions, which our Australian engineering team is working on. We’ll be in a great position to share soon.”