In a major milestone for global heavy vehicle brand Scania, it has delivered its first 100 per cent battery electric bus in Australia.
The bus was delivered to South Australia’s Department for Infrastructure and Transport and will soon be put into service in Adelaide.
“We are delighted to place this bus into the hands of our DIT operator partners,” Scania Australia managing director Manfred Streit says.
“This delivery marks a key milestone for Scania buses and coaches in Australia. It is a tangible first step on the road to a transformational public transport future, and one that Scania is very much pushing for wider adoption.
“Globally Scania has been working on transitioning to a zero tailpipe bus solution for many years and we have several cities in Europe already well advanced in their integration of Scania’s 100 per cent battery power buses into their fleets.”
Streit says Scania sees no reason why route bus operators in Australia cannot follow suit.
“The Scania BEV solution has proven to be a significant step forward in terms of performance as seen in pre-delivery testing in real world conditions,” Scania Australia bus and power solutions director of sales Julian Gurney says.
“The testing was undertaken on routes around Adelaide and the BEV bus, loaded with several tonnes of ballast to simulate passengers, coped admirably with the terrain, the congestion and the distances required for a full day’s work.
“As a result we feel very confident that this offering to the market will prove to be a very readily accepted solution, and one that can play a major role driving down urban exhaust and noise pollution.”
The first Scania BEV bus was imported from Scania in Sweden in component form and assembled by the BusTech Group in Adelaide, with BusTech then building a version of its existing VST body, modified for electric propulsion, dubbed VST-E onto the chassis.
The 12.5 m body seats 41 plus driver with room for nine standees. There are also two wheelchair positions within the saloon.
The Scania New Bus Generation included on this model introduces a completely new and simple-to-use electro-pneumatic park brake, with multiple built-in safety features that include removing the possibility of bus roll-away.
A new instrument cluster is sited within the new lower and even more ergonomic dashboard, complete with ventilation outlets to ensure drivers are able to tune the temperature of their workstation to their personal taste.
At the rear of the vehicle, under the hatch, in place of the traditional internal combustion engine are four battery stacks, while a further six are mounted on the roof. They allow the Scania BEV bus to have a working range of around 280 km on a single charge and have a working life of up to 10 years, depending on driving conditions and operating environment.
At the rear, the electric machine and gearbox are installed on the curb side. Being compact in dimensions, the motor/gearbox cluster allows for plenty of battery placement at the rear over the axle, allowing a good counterweight to the passengers inside.
Through the brake energy recovery function, the propulsion batteries take advantage of and store the kinetic energy generated by braking during driving. This is particularly effective in inner-city stop-start traffic.
“Scania very much welcomes the arrival of the first 100 per cent fully electric bus to our portfolio and to the DIT route bus fleet for Adelaide,” Gurney says.
“This is a momentous day for all of the people involved in the programme, and we look forward to adding further examples of this technology to the Australian operating environment in the very near future.”