Sege Seats is intent on adapting its products to suit the new wave of electric buses. But to do that, it had to make major component changes to drop the weight of a standard bus seat.
What difference does seven kilograms make?
It initially doesn’t sound like much. But when it comes to bus and coach seats, a single seat being seven kilograms lighter can make the entire 50-seat bus roughly 350 kilograms lighter. For modern public transport buses, this weight change can mean the difference between electric buses being able to be phased in as a viable transport option.
Sege knows this and has developed a new lightweight passenger intercity day charter seat that is focused on being as light as possible. According to Sege, the technology behind the lightweight seat means it reduces a double seat with seatbelts from a standard 27 kilograms to 20 kilograms. When a bus has 50 of these seats on them, it provides a massive drop that frees up much needed weight on low emission buses. The new seat technology is enough to excite Sege CEO Lance Taskin.
“Our new lightweight passenger intercity day charter seats are perfect for electric buses, which is great for us since we’ve been focusing on going greener as a company,” Taskin says.
“The new lightweight seat has been in production for about a year and a half. We’ve been dropping some of the components on it to drop the weight to a minimum, and we are thrilled that it’s worked.”
The super light new day charter seat isn’t just ergonomically safe. Sege has used stronger materials to drop the weight in other areas of the seat so that it still meets regulations while suiting electric passenger buses. With Sege’s usual disinfected and bacteria-free material, the finished product is another step forward for the global bus coach seat company.
Sege, who already supplies seats to more than 40 countries globally, introduced the new lightweight seat to the European seat industry three months ago. It saw major suppliers snap the product up. Taskin says he is now fielding orders from Australian markets to furnish a new wave of zero emission buses that are set to hit the market. According to Sege, it usually tests the product to see how it responds in a new market, but Taskin says the company is ready to introduce the lightweight seat to Australia on a full scale. Bus and coach manufacturers like Custom Denning are already wanting the lighter seat in its new custom designed electric vehicle.
Taskin says Sege’s new seat is another example of the company producing seats that perfectly suit the flourishing electric bus market – something which it has done since the first electronic buses were introduced in the industry.
“Everyone is going with electric buses nowadays,” he says. “The first electric bus and coach from King Long has our seats in it, while Irizar Asia Pacific had the thousandth vehicle that has our seats in it.”
Despite the initial interest surrounding the seat, Taskin is quick to state that the sales of the product are “a long-distance thing”. Sege will carry on advertising its older products that are in different seat categories while promoting the new day charter passenger seat that is suited to inter-city buses.
The new lightweight passenger intercity day charter seat is set to further progress Sege’s growth as it records steady manufacturing improvement. Taskin admits there’s “so much happening that it’s easy to forget some of it”, such is the variety of new projects that Sege is taking on. But the new lightweight seat may be the pick of the bunch. Sege is aware of its place in the bus coach seat market and knows why it has found a niche in the industry.
“Even though we’re not the biggest player in the market, for us it’s all about customer choice and what we can offer that’s different,” Taskin says. “We’re there to give everyone an option to look at other avenues.”
Taskin is confident that the current array of products on offer from Sege is wider than any other competitor in the market. Various products like dink trays, footrests, plastic backing and other seat modifications makes Sege adaptable and gives it a point of difference in the seat industry.
“We can offer a range of things on our seats which other manufacturers don’t offer half as much as,” Taskin says.
Entering the electric vehicle market has historically been important to Sege. The company is intent on manufacturing plenty of seat variants that can furnish any type of electric bus or coach preparing to hit the industry. While still selling military or normal passenger seats for other vehicle types, Sege is particularly interested in exploring the EV industry to tailor a complete package of seats that can satisfy customers with all types of requirements.
But with more than 30 years of experience in the market, Taskin says the company’s approach to selling seats to customers is still the same.
“It’s all about what the customer wants,” Taskin says. “The atmosphere we have created is that we don’t push people, but instead our products will always speak for itself, and customers can have products tailor-made to suit any requirements they desire.”