[volkman10]

Volvo buses India is gearing up to move on to the next phase of growth which will involve introducing locally made hybrid buses in the country and ramping up its export operations to include European markets.

A hybrid bus will return savings of 35-40% and the additional purchase cost can be recovered in 3-5 years. Since the Indian government is offering incentives under NEMMP 2020 (National Electric Mobility Mission Plan) for hybrid and electric vehicles, Volvo is looking forward to manufacture them locally.

http://www.business-standard.com/art...1800949_1.html

[V.Narayan]

Volkman10, please keep this thread updated with any new developments you learn of on Volvo & hybrids. thanks - Narayan

[Ashley2]

Well Volvo statement is quite clear, that they wanted to make India as a Export hub. They are already exporting few of their Intercity coaches and joining the league will be Hybrid Buses. Even regular low floor buses are yet to reach big level and still they are just added as a pinch of salt.

In India, its definitely its going to be very long journey for Hybrid and Electric buses.The pricing definitely not been justifiable for the revenue they generate.And none of the manufacturer has the technology to make it affordable as well. IMO, the price of hybrid buses should be max 1.5x to 1.6x of the conventional priced buses. Only with this we can see some light. (BYD electric bus was almost 4x priced)

One reason for this is the hybrid and electric buses are always developed in the low floor platform. These buses even with diesel power they are atleast 1.5x to 1.6x priced, combining hybrid power train they are increased several times.

Possible and suggested solution can be a hybrid power train for a 650mm or 900mm floor platform. In this case 900mm is already ruled out as UBS2 is mandating 650mm for cities with 1 million and above population. So the option is 650mm platform and that too can be with FE, so that considerable cost can be saved.

Also most of the times hybrid buses are with premium features. It should be noted that a product to be developed keeping in mind "Hybrid power train" itself as a premium feature and not anything more. Only with this and with a collaborative approach both hybrid and electric buses can be made affordable.

Janbus was developed in this view, a cost effective low floor bus purely in the Indian context, aka Nano inspired Frugal engineering. Now this has worked really well and its accepted unlike a premium 400mm floor been pushed by UBS2.
An another example is the Initial 900mm FE Semi Low floor platform which was developed during 2003 - 2004 and that triggered the low floor revolution and air suspension in India. Similarly if a manufacturer could attempt a low cost platform with Hybrid/Electric power train that will fire the next era in city bus travel.

A reference info from BMTC MD in her recent Interview.

You were the first to perform trial runs of BYD’s electric bus as well as the UD city bus. What are your views on such new buses?

Electric buses are going to be the future, and we will need the Central Government’s support for purchasing these buses because the capital cost is so high that the overall expenditure, in spite of very low running cost, even when run for 15 years, is very high and makes it very expensive to operate.

Link Here

[volkman10]

VECV lines up new models with hybrid, AMT tech

As a boost given to alternate fuel technology under the government’s Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of hybrid and electric vehicles scheme, VECV is also developing its first hybrid bus.
The development work has begun first in a school bus that will take a year and a half for completion.

http://www.autocarpro.in/news-nation...cks-buses-9401

[volkman10]

Volvo will introduce hybrid buses in India in first half of 2016.




The first Volvo hybrid city bus pilot will start in Navi Mumbai with Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport (NMMT).

Volvo said that it has more than 2,300 hybrid buses sold to over 20 countries. The company claimed that The its hybrids offer a fuel consumption which is up to 39 percent lower than that of regular diesel buses, which in turn cuts carbon dioxide emissions by the same amount and nitrogen oxides and particles by 50%.

http://auto.economictimes.indiatimes...india/49983889

[Anwesh]

The bus in the pic is a intercity multiaxle coach.

Volvo shall introduce such exclusive products like hybrid buses to distance the brand offerings from those of UD, the lower priced brand that they have introduced.

Regards,