Melbourne has another nine Volgren-made electric buses traversing its roads, this time housed in West Footscray to service the inner western suburbs.
The buses are funded by the $20 million Zero Emission Buses (ZEB) trial. Six bus operators are participating with 52 buses — 50 electric and two hydrogen — in Melbourne, Traralgon and Seymour.
An expected 670,000 passengers will ride on the new buses over the next 12 months, says Michael McGee, the CEO of the owner of the new buses, Transit Systems.
“This trial builds on our established operations in Victoria, as well as our electric bus and infrastructure capabilities, as we already operate Australia’s largest electric bus fleet and the country’s largest electrified depot,” he said in a statement.
“We estimate that 1.75 tonnes of tailpipe emissions will be saved per day directly from our nine buses.”
It is contracted to supply 36 electric buses to Kinetic in Melbourne.
The Optimus E-Bus has a 250km range and a 3.5 hour recharge time. It sits on a Chinese BYD DR9A 860 (K9) chassis and uses 16 battery packs with up to 324kWh capacity.
From 2025, all new buses on Victoria’s public transport routes must be zero emissions. The deadline means around 4,000 diesel buses in the state’s public fleet, including around 2,200 in regional Victoria, must be either reconfigured into electric or hydrogen machines, or mothballed.
The state has an emissions reduction target of 75-80 per cent by 2035 and net zero by 2045.
However, it is yet to follow other major cities around the world and ban the sale of new fossil fuel vehicles, while also charging a controversial road tax on electric cars.
The first three electric buses in the Zero Emissions Bus trial rolled out in October in Sunbury with bus operator Donric, using solid-state Lithium Metal Polymer (LMP) batteries rather than lithium-ion batteries used in other electric vehicles.
The Donric buses use the LMP battery use six 63kWh battery packs — four on the roof and two under the rear — totalling 378kWh of storage per bus. The expected range is 350-400km per charge and using 0.96kWh per kilometre.
Data collected from the trial will provide practical information like how zero emission buses perform, and energy and charging requirements for different types of routes. It will also give insight into how the buses can improve financial and environmental sustainability.
