Wrightbus achieves low carbon Emission Bus Certifications for its complete StreetLite range
The Ballymena based Wright Group has announced that the Wrightbus StreetLite Micro Hybrid range has achieved Low Carbon Emission Bus Certification and is therefore eligible for the additional fuel subsidy of 6p per km in England and 14p per km in Scotland.
The StreetLite Micro Hybrid is a very low cost hybrid system that allows the bus to recuperate lost braking energy to power the vehicle electrics and the vehicle compressed air system for free. This improves fuel efficiency by approximately 10% on a typical city bus drive cycle. Since the Wrightbus StreetLite range is already independently proven best-in-class for fuel efficiency, this further 10% improvement allows it to achieve the demands of LCEB limits.
Wrightbus can confirm that the certification covers all the vehicle derivatives in the StreetLite range – the Wheel Forward 8.8m and 9.5m products and the Door Forward 10.2m, 10.8m and 11.5m Max products. In the official LCEB test the StreetLite MAX with Micro Hybrid achieved 711 grams of CO2 per km (Tank-to-Wheel). This correlates to a 155 tonne saving in CO2 emissions over 15 years compared to the nearest competitor in its class.
Brian Maybin, Engineering Director for Wrightbus commented “We are delighted to achieve the LCEB certification for the complete StreetLite range. We have worked with FirstGroup for two years on the development of pragmatic low cost fuel saving ideas via their annual fuel efficiency competition”.
This Micro Hybrid technology is very innovative because it results in a significant further fuel saving with no compromise to the vehicle weight or the vehicle driving characteristics. This solution is production ready for Euro 5 vehicles, for immediate sale, and the vehicles are suitable for all types of drive cycle and road terrain.
The Micro Hybrid cost premium can be recovered in less than a year when the fuel saving and additional fuel subsidy are taken into consideration. Unlike other forms of hybrid bus, there is no additional maintenance cost later in the vehicle life. As Brian Maybin went on to explain “This system has all the pluses with none of the minuses.
Wrightbus StreetLite Micro hybrid bus.
