Jonathan Taylor reports from the launch of Volvo’s new electric platform, held in Gothenburg on 18 to 20 March
It’s been a busy first quarter of 2024. The whole industry seems to be alive with activity, which is great to see. This is particularly true of the coach industry where groups of people wishing to travel by coach are now just as numerous as they were pre-pandemic. The difference is that there are fewer operators to supply the demand. These are good conditions for the operators who’ve survived the lockdowns, and healthy profits are being made.
This in turn is attracting new investors into the coach industry as reported at the UKCOA conference in early March.
CBW was invited to go to Volvo Group’s recent coach-focused ‘World of Volvo’ event and conference in Gothenburg, and I had to get to London Heathrow T3 for about 5am. To reduce the need for a ridiculously early morning start I chose to stay the night before at the Radisson Blu just by the airport. It turned out to be tremendous value as I only wanted the room, and would be getting some breakfast in the terminal. The price was £88 for the room and the extremely secure, on-site, gated and monitored parking was just £16 a night. Being away for three days, that was an extra £48, total £136. Just for the sake of it I looked up the cost of short term parking at Heathrow for 3 nights… £167. Not a difficult choice.
And yes, I could have caught the coach, I hear you say, but on this occasion, sadly, that didn’t suit my travel plans. I’m sure it would have come in at even better value, but you can see why it’s a hard sell with the convenience of such cheap accommodation and parking.
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I used the National Express service last time I went to London. I will use it again, but this time I drove. And getting me into the coaching theme of the trip within minutes, I came across two lovely Bristol Greyhound buses bowling along in convoy. I think they were about 1965 vintage, and they pulled off to a service area to re-fuel. I was tempted to pull off too, take some pictures and find out what they were up to, but time did not permit.
However, it did get me thinking again about this whole modal shift question and what gets people using public transport instead of cars. It is a fact that we’re drawn to vintage tech. Would you rather be in a carriage behind the Flying Scotsman or on a nondescript modern train? Would you rather be in the vintage coach or the modern coach? I guess it depends on the trip. Vintage is for trips out, modern is for journeys to places, on time and safely.
A big reveal
Volvo is global and so its manufacturing has to take into account cultural differences as well as right- and left-hand drive. But if modal shift is going to be achieved, the vehicles have got to be attractive to passengers in every way, particularly where quality, comfort and convenience are concerned.
The event that I was en route to was to be a mixture of a ‘reveal,’ a look at the spectacular and beautiful new World of Volvo centre in Gothenburg and a full day of Volvo updates on a range of subjects. When Volvo has something it wants to say and show, it does it professionally and in style. This huge event, labelled ‘World of Volvo: Today. Tomorrow. Together’ was multi-layered in every way and Volvo brought together a worldwide selection of its customers in Gothenburg in two groups spread across a whole week. I was in the first group which included representatives from the UK and Ireland, Australia, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil and several other countries, a lovely mix of nationalities.
Our hotel was a short walk from the first ‘reveal of the trip, the nearly-finished World of Volvo building. This beautiful 22,000m2 circular building, designed by Danish architect Henning Larsen, houses a range of public, private, meeting, eating, exhibition and event spaces. It also has an internal bus stop providing comfortable access whatever the weather or temperature.
A walking tour of the building showed off its spectacular internal structure. The various spaces are laid out around three huge wooden architectural ‘trees’ with their trunks and branches (made from a composite wood called Glulam) supporting the canopied, projecting roof. Seen from the outside, this is already a unique and iconic Gothenburg building, even before it opens.
Right at the top of the wide stairway, itself a representation of a Swedish mountain embodying free access to nature, is a museum space housing the history of Volvo seen through its products. Early cars, trucks, earth-movers and buses have been restored and now make a fascinating showcase of Volvo’s achievements.
The World of Volvo Brand and Experience Centre is in the final stages of completion, ready for the public opening on 14 April. The date is the 100th anniversary of the founding of Volvo in 1924 (the first car was produced in 1927).
Martin Lundstedt, President and CEO of Volvo Group, and Anna Westerberg, President of Volvo Buses gave us welcome speeches with reminders of where Volvo has come from, including giving the world the patent for the three-point seat belt (“there’s a bit of Volvo in every car, whatever its make.”). They also made a commitment about where Volvo Group is going and this commitment was at the heart of everything that followed.
From brown to green
Volvo’s plan is to turn its global manufacturing processes from making ‘brown’ platforms, reliant on fossil fuels at every stage and in every component, to making ‘green’ platforms with no fossil fuel use at all. This big change includes its entire supply chain (some 50k suppliers worldwide). Examples given were steel manufacture and even the mining of raw materials. The end goal is to have all Volvo products fossil-free by 2040. Investment being made to achieve this goal is $5bn, 10% of turnover.
Achieving the goal will be good for the planet and good for us all. The goal of treading lightly and cleanly on our planet, expressed as net zero CO2, is admirable and Volvo is at the forefront of achieving that goal.
It is questionable whether achieving net zero will have even a marginal effect on climate change, which is a constant and normal state for our planet. There are much bigger, non-human, forces at play affecting climate change.
But that is not the point. We cannot go on polluting our planet.
Time for the reveal
It was time for the big reveal, and dinner. What a reveal. Although leaked prior to the event, the reveal of Volvo’s BZR (Bus Zero Rear) chassis was nevertheless another spectacular element of the visit. Set in World of Volvo’s high tech banqueting and conference hall, the reveal was announced by a shimmering virtual cartoon figure and backed up with internal-organ-adjusting music from the sound system. (The sound engineers behind us were smiling).
Go to the Coach & Bus Week YouTube channel, click ‘subscribe’ and see the video of the BZR platform reveal and other elements of the World of Volvo visit.
The BZR platform is designed to extend Volvo’s existing low-floor electric buses capabilities and take electrification outside just city use, including making it a viable option for intercity transport companies. This is achieved by using a modular design system of battery storage. Individual battery packs are box-shaped and can be located in various out-of-the-way places within the chassis, and of course housed in crash protection boxes. Mind you, these lithium-ion NCA batteries are big things, each weighing 535kg and giving 90kWh of energy. In the current maximum configuration of five batteries there is 540kWh of energy available but at a weight cost of 2.675 tonnes for the batteries alone on the three-axle version. On the up side, the axles on the BZR are lighter than their diesel alternatives.
The platform, as launched, comes in several configurations, encompassing 9.5m to 15m lengths, high- or low-floor entry, two or three axles, and a single or dual motor driveline.
Over lunch with the BZR project manager Fredrik Björn, Volvo’s Product Director (City), it was clear that, at this stage, Volvo is not yet able to give either energy consumption or average realistic range estimates, using a given route and load, for the platform. These fuel consumption figures (in diesel-speak) are going to be essential for operators to make decisions.
Parts commonality
Volvo Group has been working on getting commonality of sub systems and components doing similar jobs across its different products. The BZR platform utilises this thinking, so these parts are going to be widely and quickly available when needed from Volvo service centres around the world.
There were interesting details. The motors have some intelligence. For example when in slow traffic one of the two motors will shut down automatically and only come back in when needed. The BZR is ultimately capable of carrying eight battery units. This means that Volvo will be able to talk with National Express, FlixBus, megabus and other long distance carriers to provide fully electric intercity services.
As you would expect from Volvo, the BZR bristles with active safety systems. Included are: front, side and rear cameras; forward collision warning; side collision avoidance support; front short range assist; lane keeping support; lane change support; intelligent speed adjust; driver alert support, and; tyre pressure monitoring system.
Volvo had a lot more to say about safety and several other subjects on the second day, which you can read about in my follow-up feature soon.
The BZR platform is a long-term, global, electromobility product for Volvo. It is achieving production commonalities to reduce costs and improve service. It recognises, within the design, that most of what the platform carries is changing at a much faster rate than the operating life of the platform itself. The platform is designed to accommodate those changes. Everything about the BZR platform reflects Volvo Group’s core values of safety, quality and environmental care.
The reveal was followed by dinner and an entertaining band performing well-known songs with an energetic Swedish take. They even got operators on their feet waving their arms about!
Dinner was a World of Volvo showcase for Swedish cuisine. As a group, we probably numbered more than 250, always a challenge for catering teams. What they produced was top class. And, rather than annoy you by reproducing the outstanding menu, I can just recommend a visit to Gothenburg for its beautiful cityscape, old town and waterside setting. While there, go on a boat trip around the stunning local archipelago and, of course, visit the new World of Volvo building. You’ll have a really good lunch and a lot more besides.
I look forward to seeing the platform hit the road, and of course we’ll bring you a road test in print, online and on our YouTube channel as soon as we can.
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