£30M Fund for Low Carbon Buses in the UK; New GM-Allison Hybrid Buses in London

2 July 2009

The UK Government is establishing a £30 million fund (US$49 million) to encourage the purchase of low carbon emission buses (LCEB). The fund is part of the Department for Transport’s wider strategy to encourage a shift to low carbon transport and improve air quality in UK cities.

A Low Carbon Emission Bus (LCEB) is a bus that is able to achieve the LCEB target for Greenhouse Gas Emissions, which is equivalent to a 30% reduction in its Greenhouse Gas Emissions compared to a current Euro 3 diesel bus of the same total passenger capacity. These buses will all meet the latest air quality standards, delivering at least Euro V EU emission standards.

The fund is not intended to pay the full cost of a low carbon bus. The maximum funding per bus will be the difference between the cost of the low carbon bus and the cost of its standard diesel equivalent.

Bus operators and local authorities will be able to bid for funding toward the additional cost of buying a LCEB. The Department will assess the bids against published criteria and will award grant to the winners. This grant will help to meet the upfront cost of the vehicles. This criteria will be published shortly.

At present, low carbon buses make up just 0.2% of buses on UK roads today. The fund is intended to put low carbon buses within the reach of as many operators and local authorities as possible throughout England.

CO₂ emissions from buses have increased significantly over the last 10 years. For the sake of our environment and the air quality in our towns and cities it’s important to encourage the industry to move towards low carbon models...Over the next two years we expect this fund to support the purchase of several hundred low carbon buses.

—Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis

The fund is also available for very low and zero emission vehicles, such as electric vehicles, and the Department is interested in receiving bids which covered the demonstrations of such buses in regular use for services.

The Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) was reformed this April so that bus operators will now only receive an increase in their grant if they achieve fuel efficiency improvements. If they achieve at least a 6% improvement in their fuel efficiency, their BSOG rate will be increased, from first of April 2010, by 3%. From April 2009, bus operators have received an additional payment of six pence for each kilometer they operate with low carbon buses.

The Department will talk to key stakeholders before publishing the details of the competition.

The Optare Tempo hybrid. Click to enlarge.

New hybrid buses in London. Separately, four of 10 new Optare Tempos equipped with the GM-Allison Hybrid EP-System recently became operational in East London—the first buses using the patented two-mode parallel hybrid technology in the UK.

Transport for London (TfL) is trialing the buses as part of an extensive long-running study into the performance of different hybrid systems and their various specifiable components such as controls, batteries and transmissions. Five of the GM-Allison-equipped buses are with the East London Bus Group where they will carry passengers on the 276 route between Newham General Hospital and Stoke Newington. Metroline will operate a further five on the E8 route between Ealing Broadway and Brentford.

The GM-Allison system (the heavy-duty predecessor of the GM two-mode hybrid system applied in light-duty vehicles) has a two-mode compound split-parallel hybrid architecture. Click to enlarge.

The complete GM-Allison Ep40/50 systems consists of the Ev Drive module (which serves as the vehicle transmission); the Dual Power Inverter Module (DPIM); the Energy Storage System (ESS) based on advanced Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries; two electronic control modules; and the electronic driver interface with integrated display.

The EV Drive module forms a Hybrid Electrically Variable Transmission (HEVT). An Electrically Variable Transmission has the potential to combine the continuous control and urban drive cycle efficiency of the series hybrid with the high power capability and high efficiency of the parallel hybrid.

The GM-Allison hybrid system has been sold into more than 2,200 buses and coaches worldwide and has covered more than 200 million kms in revenue service.