(^26) ABC April 2018 busnews.com.au
SNAP CHAT INTERVIEW
ABC: Any new products coming out
you can tell us about, or even allude
to – and when?
LD: We are heavily investing in electric
buses, and are currently working on an
electric chassis for the Australian market.
In terms of the timing, we are looking at
a release in two-to-three years. While this
seems some time away, we believe that
it is by this time the industry, legislators,
business models and infrastructure will
be ready – the bus is actually the last
thing required and all the other integral
elements around the bus need to be set up
correctly first for ‘electric’ success.
ABC: What are your views on
alternative fuels? We still have diesel
buses used in this country; How
quickly should operators be adopting
Euro 6, or is there still time for them
to not?
LD: Definitely from Volvo’s perspective
there will be a mix of diesel and electric
moving forward; we’ll be using diesel for a
very long time here in Australia.
We don’t see that it will suddenly become
all ‘electric’ overnight. At Volvo we see the
journey towards electric as being a stepped
approach, starting with hybrid buses while
cities plan for their infrastructure – and
the tricky part is that every city and route
will be different. A good example of this
stepped approach has been in London.
London started with hybrids back in 2008
when Volvo launched it and they are only
now going into full electric, so it’s actually
taken a 10-year span to get to this stage, to
get the grid connection and the power and
all the things that are needed for electric.
And even then, they are only selecting
some routes in the city where it makes
sense to be completely zero emission.”
ABC: So with everyone seemingly
looking to electric buses as the norm
in future, do hybrid buses have a use-
by date on them already?
LD: No, absolutely not! From two
perspectives – the fact they [hybrids] don’t
need any infrastructure means they deliver
both transport security and flexibility, so
the ability to be run in places where there
is no access to the power requirements
for electric. But as I said, if you start with
hybrids, as new technology comes you can
move them out from the city centre and
end up with not just zero emission in city
centres, but also low emissions further out
as well.
ABC: So with us not having Euro 6
mandatory from a legal perspective
yet, are we moving too slow? Do we
collectively need to adopt it even
without the regulations? How do you
see the evolution of Euro 6 here and in
this region?
LD: A lot of our customers are already
adopting Euro 6 before the legislation and
we are happy to say at Volvo it doesn’t
matter what type of vehicle and emission
level you want, we have the largest product
offering in the market. Whether it be Euro
5, Euro 6, artics, rigids or hybrids – we
can offer it all. There are challenges, but
I think the bus industry is actually more
progressive towards emissions standards
than, say, the trucking industry, where there
are different issues to face.
dana p.
(Dana P.)
#1