H IS FOR HYDROGENH DRIVE UNVEILS HYDROGEN FUEL CELL BUS

Australian company HDrive has revealed a hydrogen fuel cell double decker bus along with an electric shuttle bus at a media event at Shellharbour airport and says the buses might be assembled in Australia at some point in the future.

The company has been launched to market zero emission vehicles as a specialist zero emissions distributor in Australia, specialising in hydrogen and battery electric vehicles.

The company revealed the buses, both made in China by Wisdom Motor with the hydrogen powered double decker using Ballard fuel cell technology, while the battery electric shuttle bus is a similar size and look to a Hino Poncho and will also form a part of the HDrive operation.

The hydrogen fuel cell bus has a capacity of 100 occupants including the driver, with 79 seated and 20 standing across two levels. The 11.98 metre bus has a height of 4.4 metres and weighs in at 16 tonnes tare weight with a GVM of 22 tonnes

H Drive says the Wisdom FC 120DD Double Decker has the ability to tackle a maximum grade of 17 per cent and can maintain 20 km/h with a maximum speed of 80km/h and a range on its hydrogen tanks of 300km, with the ability to refuel in around 15 min.

It is fitted with a 105.3 kWh battery with electricity provided from a Ballard WEF

110-1 fuel cell providing power to the ZF AVE 130 axle mounted electric motor, with ZF air suspension on all axles including the ZF RL 82 tag axle, while it runs disc brakes all around.

General manager Ben Kiddle said it is HDrive’s intention to potentially invest in manufacturing in the Illawarra around the area near the Shellharbour airport where he says it will also carry out vehicle development.

“There’s lots of opportunity for employment, lots of people are seeking employment, and lots of trade skills around the area as well,” said Kiddle.

Kiddle has worked in the UK for the past 20 years and has worked on hydrogen and battery electric buses during that time and brings that knowledge and skill to the task of running H Drive.

“It was a great opportunity for me to further my skills, my career in heavy vehicle, the chemical industry and my learnings for pushing city buses along with zero emission technologies,” he said.

That was 20 years ago and we were running Hydrogen buses in London back then and now we have a hydrogen bus here in Australia.

Kiddle said HDrive knows what the challenges are and what needs to be done to engineer these vehicles for Australian conditions.

Divisions a tribe of employees invited You all for this event as partners stakeholders for a better future, a future where our children will learn, the change is achievable. The change is acceptable, and the change can be made.

“We’ve brought this double decker bus here to the Illawarra to demonstrate that hydrogen fuel cell technology is real and to show that it’s the ideal technology for use in the commercial transport industry”, he said.

Kiddle said that HDrive will have the largest portfolio of zero emission heavy passenger and commercial vehicles available in Australia.

“We will have solutions in battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, ranging from four and a half tonnes to 70 tonnes in commercial, and from 13 passengers to 100 passengers in buses which could see a varying range of sizes,” said Kiddle.

“We intend to do more than just sell vehicles, we need to provide solutions for the industry,” he said.

“We are work closely with our energy partners to ensure that vehicles are delivered with options for charging, hydrogen storage, supply and production solutions and to ensure that our customers are completely ready to drive their businesses to a greener future,” he added.

The president of Bus NSW John King, was on hand at the launch having already been an early adopter of battery electric vehicles during a trial on the South Coast of NSW in 2018.

“As president of Bus NSW, it pleases me greatly to see the hydrogen fuel cell bus behind us today,” said John King.

“In 2019 the industry was given a challenge to start transitioning the fleet to zero emissions, an ambitious challenge, however, our industry has always stood up, it always will stand up to bring the solution to government and not the problem,” he said. HDrive is working with hydrogen supplier Pure Hydrogen and it is aiming to get the cost of hydrogen down to about $20 per kilo which would be parity with the cost of diesel.

“We believe we’re going to get it to a lot less than that, and we would be looking to drive partnerships with transport operators and all our energy suppliers, and we’ve already started that journey,” said Ben Kiddle.

The White Family has a long and proud history in the bus industry selling and servicing a huge number of buses over several decades, across a couple of generations. For many years Bus Stop was the place to go for Yutong buses but in recent times it has moved to a different brand as its main focus, taking over the distribution of the King Long brand in Australia. We had a chat with Pete White at the recent Sydney Bus Show to find out more about the Whites and their path to a green future.

IT is fair to say that King Long had been languishing before Bus Stop took the brand on and now brighter days appear to be ahead for the Chinese maker down under.

Under the stewardship of Pete White, Bus Stop has grown strongly in recent years not just on the back of Yutong and in more recent times, King Long, but also creating the versatile and unique Isuzu I-Bus, which create people carrying buses using Isuzu truck chassis, but more of that later.

Most importantly for Bus Stop and its customers, was the launch at the Sydney Bus Show of, what it claims is Australia’s first fully electric high floor bus. It is much more than a case of the Whites turning green and reflects the general tenor of the industry at the moment as we face the need to become carbon-free.

To view the Bus Stop stand at the Sydney Show was to understand this, everywhere you looked there was green with green plant trimmed stanchions, as well as green themes with the buses, and of course the electric buses it was displaying there.

In a chat with Pete White on the stand we got to understand the real commitment Bus Stop has to the changes ahead and the fact that the company is in for the long haul.

“We chose very early in the planning for

Sydney, that we wanted to showcase our premier electric options and the variety of models we have,” said Pete White.

White explained that the King Long electric chassis displayed was the latest electric solution for urban operators and is chock a block full of the latest electric bus tech and components that are the best available in the industry.

There were two examples of the King Long chassis on Bus Show stand , one a fully built up Volgren bodied city bus and the other a bare electric chassis, displaying the quality and sensible layout that the highly experienced King Long factory can produce.

Bus Stop recently announced its tie up with Volgren and was keen to show the fruits of that relationship and how it can provide a viable and very competitive alternative in the electric sphere to the established and dominant European brands.

“We’ve worked very closely with Volgren to put this bus together using the best local body available and our partnership with them is proving to be very fruitful and I reckon that both companies have worked well together to deliver a fully supported and very competitive electric bus for the market,” said Pete White.

Bus Stop’s display was not purely electric focussed, despite it being the most dominant theme at the display.

“We have not forgotten out roots and we did have diesel on the stand because it is obvious that the up take of electric will take time and won’t suit everyone in the shorter term, so we have options for operators, with various sizes and options available to suit,” he said.

“That is not to say that we are not pushing the envelope when it comes to new energy options,” White added. Underlining that was the previously mentioned Evolution high floor electric zero emission bus that can rightfully claim to be the first Australian delivered high floor electric bus and the first to gain ADR compliance.

“The Evolution is a very special bus because it was the first in Australia and it is aimed at the school and mining markets and we believe it is and excellent package,” said White.

Bus Stop’s other key product line is the I-Bus Isuzu buses and they decided to really celebrate the relationship with Isuzu at the Show and had a 32 seat I-Bus on the stand, a bus that is positioned competitively against the likes of Fuso’s Rosa and Toyota’s Coaster.

“It’s a 32 seater that can be driven on a light rigid licence, it has no AdBlue nor DPF burn issues, so it has none of those headaches for operators, and in our opinion this is unrivalled and in a class of its own,” said Pete.

“It has no real competitor and it generated a huge amount of enquiry and interest at the Show,” he added.

“Our stand at the Show was only a fraction of the number of solutions we can offer the bus industry, but the stand is indicative of our vision, which is to always challenge the market and to seek out new models to satisfy our customer’s needs,” said Pete.

As we mentioned earlier King Long had languished somewhat, after the Melbourne based distributor, Heavy Vehicles Australia pulled out of the business in December 2019 HVA that had handled the brand for sometime but it is fair to say that the last couple of years before it pulled out were a shadow of the brand’s previous high points.

Thankfully Bus Stop was transitioning out of its relationship with Yutong at the time and by March 2020 King Long had a new home, with the steady and experienced had of Pete White guiding the business.

Timing is everything and of course March 2020 was when the dreaded Covid 19 started its cruel shutdown of our economy.

Now almost three years on the Sydney Bus Show was a very strong indication that it is now all systems go for Bus Stop

AS we mentioned Bus Stop is still very much a family owned and run business with its headquarters at its Brisbane Bus Centre at Rocklea in Brisbane along with its Victorian operation at Epping in Melbourne’s north.

With the support and backing of his highly experienced father, Dick White, Pete has a great sounding board and someone who has been there and done that. Along with Dick’s experience, Pete also has a collective team that bring a huge amount of experience in bus body building and in and around the industry.

Pete is quick to point out that while the Sydney Bus Show was a fantastic expo for its new buses, he said the company is also a large player in the used bus and coach market as well as with motorhomes.

“We are totally committed to ensuring our customers are fully supported with parts and service after choosing from our product range, and to demonstrate that commitment we hold more than $1 million in genuine parts, while also retaining a nationwide team of factory-trained and supported service agents to help with any repairs,” Pete said.

Here at LCV we often get to drive big vans, utes and even mid size vans, but we unfortunately don’t get to drive Euro style city vans as we like to call them, for instance the subject of this story, Volkswagen’s versatile and very lovable Caddy van. Sure the payload is smaller and they don’t sell as many in size obsessed Australia, but we reckon VW is right on the money with the Caddy. We took a drive to see how the latest edition performed.

The Caddy plays amongst its European opponents from Renault with its Kangoo and Peugeot with the Partner, while the likes of Toyota and Hyundai who lead in the larger van area, don’t have a product in the little van segment.

The latest incarnation of the Caddy Cargo pretty much delivers VW Golf dynamics and interior in a practical and nippy panel van, that is ideally suited to hefting smaller loads around town, but is equally at home heading down the highway on a weekend away.

Climb behind the wheel of the Caddy Cargo Maxi that we were testing and you understand the excellent visibility to the sides and looking forward, thanks largely to the taller roof and glasshouse of the van.

As we said the Caddy gets a real Golf influence and as a result you get very comfortable proper seats, a leather wrapped steering wheel and the latest in dash technology, which although it looks great, does have some downsides, but more of that later.

There are lots of nooks and crannies, with bins and hidey holes for drivers using the Caddy Cargo as a work van, enabling them to stow paperwork, coffee cups and drink bottles, iPads and anything else you have to carry. This includes a large stowage area on top of the dash and large and deep door pockets, all of which have been well designed and thought out.

In the upgrade to the latest tech with the newest model, the Caddy gets a new electronic gear selector, which is in fact a small stubby switch in reality, an item that might have been better located somewhere on the dash. No matter what, it is easy to use and quick to adapt to.

Back behind the front seats is the cargo area, which is surprisingly large, fitted with a floor that has been coated in a non-slip paint finish and unlike previous models, there is a solid bulkhead protecting the cabin occupants from loose tools or cargo stored in the cargo area.

The Cargo Caddy Maxi that we tested, was fitted with sliding doors on both sides, which is a major convenience and a big time and labour saving for delivery drivers and tradies alike. Our test van had twin wide opening rear doors, although a lift up tailgate can be ordered as an option for those that prefer that configuration