For me, there are 3 main issues with the electric buses we have:
1) Lower capacity than the diesel options we have.
A problem with a poorly designed BYD chassis limiting the versatility of the interior build, if your asking me that’s a huge problem with the existing 400EV.
2) Extremely claustrophobic for passengers and not ideal for having people standing when all seats are taken.
3) Getting a full day out of them with the current range is very tricky.
Absolutely, several times when I was on the 9 bus boards had to be cut short because simply they weren’t getting the claimed range but they also don’t have the drivers available to swap buses out, around 10-20 miles of range shorter than is needed in most cases.
It is happening on other routes as well with 200/400EVs.
Yes, it's good that the fleet is getting modernised so quickly but if passenger comfort is compromised then it's not good for keeping passengers.
We can all debate on what to call it, Personally I would only agree to disagree that many things at First Glasgow have been a hash-bash affair, not thought through before making on long term decisions.
From what I can see these new E400EVs have improved capacity downstairs than the current ones. They also look like they’ve reverted back to the shape of the E400MMCs which I prefer.
I think Glasgow will no doubt see these to start ousting the older B9TLs. I wonder if Lanarkshire and Glasgow local services will see any E100EVs.
The article does state that the 100EV is only a 8.5m bus, that is suitable for something like the Station Link 398 but most routes are unsuitable for a bus of that size, even in lanarkshire, perhaps a small SPT route would be ideal but I’ll be betting that the 100EV is an expensive bus so much so that it makes bo sense to divest a huge amount of money onto a small electric bus when the payback is poor.
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