They better not ruin transdevs fleet…
Last week i spent a bunch of time in sydneys northern beaches with all my bus journeys being split between the b1 double decks, older diesels and new electrics. The new electrics are night and day difference in passenger comfort.
This is just just the passenger experience perspective. This ignores the environmental, acceleration performance bonus, a long term cost savings.
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You know you can only get diesel two ways. Refining from crude oil or using a biofuel blend which really still needs actual diesel added to it anyway unless you have a hyper specialised engine
Dont know if you are aware but you can make electricity through both of the methods above, plus coal (we have heaps), lpg or lng (we have heaps), solar (we have heaps), wind (we have heaps), hydro (we have heaps), plus techology like nuclear, wave power and geothermal which australia doesnt have. In short, we have found alot of ways to make electrons move.
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Really, the only routes in SEQ I’d maybe (and only maybe) question the use of electric buses on are the 529, 539, and maybe 631 and 632. This is because of the length of these routes, and how far they need to go from their respective depots.
I’m not even sure any of those are a problem though. The 11 electric buses on the Sunshine Coast are all based at Caloundra and routinely operate all the way to Noosa in the course of a day. We are getting to the point where an electric can basically do a full shift that any ICE vehicle could do. In BCC’s case the remaining gas buses are probably at a range disadvantage due to the tanks deliberately not being pressurised as much these days.
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Depends on the manufacturer. Brookvale Depot, soon to be the first Depot in NSW to fully electrify there bus fleet are experiencing plenty of hiccups with the rollout of these electric vehicles. The Foton C12 in particular has struggled so much with the hilly terrain of the Northern Beaches that there rollout for public service has been delayed. Australian built Custom Dennings are having issues with breaking down randomly among other things. So while electrified buses are probably all in all a great thing for the environment, we have a good example of Australian built and Chinese built electric buses experiencing issues and causing delays. The Yutong E12s on the Northern Beaches (the same buses as the electrified fleet of 11 in Caloundra) all things considered have been pretty reliable.
You’re probably correct. I’m not too familiar with Sunshine Coast operations. I do know that Clarks don’t like sending their ZDis into the Brisbane CBD, preferring to keep them on local Logan routes. I’ve heard rumours it was because the cost of retrieval was high, should issues occur, but nothing official.
Looking at the real-time data, the Electric buses on the Sunshine Coast have comparable in service hours to the diesels (5770 is the top electric at 72.36 hrs for the last 7 days, 5782 the top diesel at 104.36 hrs, however most are around the 70-80hrs)
The SC has a few gaps with vehicles not reporting data etc. so its only a loose number.
All of their electrics (fleet no, hrs, total trips)
| 5770 | 72.36 | 75 |
|---|---|---|
| 5767 | 70.88 | 75 |
| 5768 | 64.48 | 73 |
| 5769 | 62.73 | 70 |
| 5763 | 58.65 | 63 |
| 5764 | 54.36 | 56 |
| 5766 | 48.69 | 60 |
| 5761 | 48.26 | 51 |
| 5760 | 32.42 | 44 |
| 5765 | 32.42 | 36 |
| 5762 | 18.41 | 21 |
5760 and 5762 have been known to have tracking issues.
Compare that to Clark’s:
| 906 | 21.61 | 19 |
|---|---|---|
| 908 | 18.51 | 16 |
| 910 | 18.05 | 15 |
| 907 | 17.90 | 13 |
| 905 | 12.22 | 11 |
| 904 | 4.61 | 5 |
| 902 | 3.09 | 3 |
If the GPS equipment on the 777 units were to be more reliable (they’ve been shaken to hell and back due to years of GCLR3 works) then it’s very likely that those ones would take the cake of more intensively used in SEQ.
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I think we’ve reached it to be honest.
If the vehicle data on QLD Bus Tracker (courtesy of @James00) is reasonably accurate, some of the electric Yutong E12s on the Sunshine Coast are sometimes spending 12+ hours a day actively running routes (excluding deadruns), with some of the e12s clocking up 15+ hour days.
With the exception of night services, the SC bus network only operates for about 17-20 hours out of the day, so first generation EV buses achieving 15+ hours is already a pretty good outcome.
Worth noting too this is currently achieved entirely through depot charging, once you install chargers at layovers where drivers swap or take breaks (like Brisbane Metro uses), you could easily have BEV buses on the road for 20-22 hours a day should you need to.
Ignoring all of that though, at the end of the day they’re cheaper to operate, more comfortable for passengers both on and off the bus (less noise and fumes) and generally VERY mechanically reliable, which makes them an easy choice for operators.
I was on a Kinetic Yutong E12 a few weeks ago and it was genuinely just a lovely experience especially in the steep back streets of Caloundra, no roaring engine or rough gear changes. almost as good as a train 
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The residual range issues at present are around higher capacity electric vehicles like artics but since the PTA is shortly to accept some even that is probably no longer an issue. Things like the buses on the M1 and M2 are about all that is left to sort out.
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Not trolling
Yutong are a Chinese bus brand. We shouldn’t be buying Chinese buses regarding national security concerns. Should be building our own buses instead.
As noted above. The USA has massive issues with affordability of buses (both electric and diesel) because of buy america mandates. A bus in the USA can cost 2x that of europe or asia.
We dont need to go down the route of this just to maintain a limited manufacturing capability.
(You also posted that comment using a piece of equipment that had lots of chinese hardware)
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Just a general question, but would our standard bus supply chains (so foreign/domestic engine & chassis manufactures and local body builders) be capable of supplying a full 600 bus order as 100% EV?
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I expect so. There is a lot of production capacity coming online in SEQ shortly, and the coachbuilders are perfectly capable of building on an electric chassis - all of them already have.
If Bustech / Go Zero are building anything I certainly hope they have moved away from the garbage step in the side door approach. Joe Calabro originally wanted a low floor bus that maximised seating, which is why we got the VST and its derivatives with a sloping window line. As a suburban / school / intertown bus it is an excellent design which gives you DDA compliance and maximises bums on seats with good visibility. As an urban bus it sucks because there is no efficient passenger flow inside, and some of the derivatives (the MDi in particular) suffer from poor visibility in parts of the saloon where the windows are too high up.
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Are Bustech/Go Zero actually going to amount to anything, or are they a bit ‘vapourware-ish’?
Then please be aware the electric traction is clearly better for hills. Electric traction is technically superior in every way except for energy density.
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They have premises opening shortly at Yatala down the street from GBV’s premises.
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Foreign imports are not to our conditions