Equipmake & Beulas unveil electric double-decker in the UK
The British electric drive specialist Equipmake and the Spanish bus manufacturer Beulas have presented a battery-electric double-decker bus that is supposed to achieve a range of up to 250 miles with a battery capacity of up to 543 kWh – the equivalent of about 400 kilometres.
According to the partners, the Jewel E will be launched on the market next year. Before that, testing of the electric double-decker bus is to begin in the fourth quarter of this year. The model will be built at a factory in Norfolk inaugurated by Equipmake at the end of 2019. The British e-motor company stresses that it falls within the criteria of a UK government programme unveiled in the spring to put 4,000 new UK-built battery and hydrogen buses on the roads by 2024 as part of a major restructuring of public bus services.
The Jewel E is powered by Equipmake’s scalable Zero Emission Drivetrain (ZED). The double-decker uses a motor with 400 kW and 3,500 Nm at 1,000 rpm, which is mounted directly on the propshaft without a separate gearbox. Depending on the number of battery packs, Equipmake specifies a battery capacity of up to 543 kWh. The manufacturer also mentions an efficient heat management system including a water-glycol cooling circuit as a special feature. Regarding the charging technology, it only says that the bus is designed for overnight DC charging in the depot.
According to Equipmake, the ZED is already being used in single deckers on the streets of Buenos Aires. The electric buses there are the result of a partnership between the British and the manufacturer Agrale.
In the case of the Jewel E, Equipmake cooperated with the Spanish coachbuilder Beulas. The company has not yet commented on the price of the double-decker, but assures that it will be “inexpensive”. The model is apparently intended primarily for the domestic market. Equipmake says that it is suitable for operation in London as well as the surrounding British provinces, but emphasises that the Jewel E already “meets the latest specifications and requirements of the Transport for London (TfL) bus safety standard for 2024”.
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