Jonathan Welch paid a visit to the Wrightbus factory to see what goes in to producing the firm’s diesel, electric and hydrogen-fuelled buses
From its early days as a small Northern Irish specialist vehicle manufacturer, Wrightbus grew to be one of the biggest names in the UK bus market in just a few decades, becoming a staple provider to FirstGroup, as well as a myriad of other, small and medium sized companies across the country and in the Far East. The troubled period of the late 2010s is well documented, as is its sale out of administration to JCB heir Jo Bamford in 2019. Just three years later, the company has re-established itself and is on a firm footing to move into the era of zero-emission buses, continuing the pioneering spirit of innovation of its founder, the late Sir William Wright.
In mid-November, the growing manufacturer took on it’s 1,000th employee, marking a significant milestone for the firm as it re-establishes itself both as a manufacturer and major local employer, and follows what the firm describes as an ‘outstanding year’ in which it has secured a series of high-profile deals in the UK and overseas, and launched a new sister company, AllServiceOne, which offers repair and maintenance to operators of all vehicles, not just Wrightbus products.
Building on work which had already been started prior to administration, sales of its zero-emission buses have risen from none when Jo Bamford took over, to 50% of production in 2022. Wrightbus’ Hydroliner hydrogen buses, in service in Aberdeen, Birmingham, Dublin and London, have covered over 1.5 million miles since first entering service, preventing an estimated 2,366 tonnes of CO2 emissions entering the atmosphere compared to journeys made by an equivalent diesel bus, the same as removing around 550 cars from British roads for a year. The battery-electric Electroliner is also becoming more common, including with Translink in Belfast, Transport for Ireland and Abellio in London.
Proud
Jo Bamford has said he is ‘immensely proud’ of how far the firm has come in the first three years under his stewardship, and of the contribution it was making to the UK economy and net zero ambitions. “When I took over the company, I was clear about my ambitions for it, both in terms of contributing to the UK’s plans for net zero and in terms of supporting the British economy,” he said. “We have invested heavily in the last three years and it is remarkable to see 1,000 members of staff now employed in Northern Ireland, when there were just a handful of people left when the company was bought out of administration.
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“This has been our most successful year to date, and that is down to those 1,000 people who are Wrightbus. I’m immensely proud of what the team has achieved and the reputation we have forged in the zero-emission transport sector. The deals we have secured this year are because of the reputation we have built up, which really does speak for itself. We developed the world’s first hydrogen double-decker and the world’s most efficient double-deck battery-electric bus. These deals have been secured on our merit.”
In the last year, Wrightbus has won a string of deals with companies including First Bus and the Republic of Ireland’s National Transport Authority (NTA), as well as signing deals in Australia and Germany, and has stated its aim to manufacture 3,000 zero-emissions buses by 2024, comprising 10% of the UK’s total fleet, with over 400 of those coming during the current financial year. The company also has plans to recruit a further 400 new staff members in the next year, after already expanding its headcount by over 40% in the last 12 months.
To find out more about what has happened in those three years, as well as the firm’s plans for the future, we paid a visit to the company’s main production facility on the edge of Ballymena. Located on the banks of the River Maine, the vast site was once home to the Gallagher tobacco factory. JTI-owned Gallagher closed its doors for the final time in October 2017 after moving production to Poland, with Wrightbus moving in from December the same year. In the halls where once a key ingredient for smoking was produced, these days the focus is very much on clean air, with rows of battery-electric and hydrogen chassis making their way along the production line, as well as an ever-decreasing proportion of Euro VI diesel buses.
Factory visit
I joined CEO Buta Atwal, who plans to retire at the end of this year, along with Development and Manufacturing Director Damian McGarry for a look around the production facility, and chatted to Chief Commercial Officer Ben Werth as well as AllServiceOne Service Director David Murdoch to find out more about what the company has in store. The production line was dominated by the green and yellow of Transport for Ireland’s large fleet order, interspersed with three-tone blue buses for First Potteries.
“Our growth over the last three years even surprised me a bit,” Buta said, speaking about the firm’s rapid regrowth from the 56 staff who were employed when production restarted, through to the recent appointment of Wrightbus’ 1,000th member of staff. He explained that some brave decisions had been made early on in the rejuvenation, and that investment had been needed in the hydrogen project to get it to a standard where the now Bamford-owned Wrightbus could be satisfied with it.
Those brave decisions, supported by Jo Bamford’s hydrogen background, have propelled the traditional bus-builder relatively quickly into a zero-emission producer. At the same time, it has moved on from body-on-chassis methods which saw Volvo, DAF, Scania and VDL products bodied in Ballymena, to producing its own integral diesel, and later zero-emission buses; indeed, the firm has come full circle now, with a deal to supply its hydrogen tech to Australian body builder Volgren.
“We didn’t start with a diesel bus,” Buta continued, talking about the design of the Hydroliner and Electroliner. “There was no compromise. They were designed for the purpose, and they resulted in our order book doubling year on year. We’ve already sold more next year than we’ve built this year. We will double this year’s production.”
Looking back on the last three years, he added that although there had been challenges, it was testament to the strength of the product that the company was still on track.
Hydrogen future?
As the company switches towards zero-emission buses, Buta suggested that the biggest restriction to sales of its hydrogen-fuelled products is the supply of hydrogen; the technology is there, he said, and whereas batteries look set to become more expensive as demand grows, the economy of scale for hydrogen has not yet been reached, meaning scope for prices to fall as the infrastructure becomes available to support more larger fleet orders. And whilst the long-term plan must be for green hydrogen, he also cautioned against restricting ‘blue’ hydrogen production in the short to medium term. “We have to have a more liberal view,” he said, “to allow the technology to develop and move to greener methods.”
The balance of battery and hydrogen buses will shift, he said, predicting 30-40% of production being the hydrogen product in the mdeium term, and potentially becoming the dominent technology in the longer term, and maybe as early as 2026. “We will see more availability of gas,” he said, so it will become more attractive for buses. As availability of gas increases, prices will drop. Prices for materials for batteries are only going to increase.”
Buta predicts that for large vehicles, hydrogen will become the norm, with batteries restricted to smaller, lighter ones, but accepts that for now, battery-electric is much easier and more accessible to customers than hydrogen. “Wherever the market goes, we are well-positioned,” he added.
At current prices, a hydrogen bus carries a price premium of around 10% over the equivalent battery-electric model; a Euro VI diesel version would come in at around 60% of that, so both technologies still have a way to go, though the lifetime total cost of ownership is increasingly the bottom line figure pushed, rather than initial outlay, and with some justification at present vehicle and ‘fuel’ costs. Not to be forgotten alongside the increasing cost of diesel is that as that technology wanes in popularity, so will subsidies.
CCO Ben backed up the point. “The impact of scale is huge,” he said. “The demand for batteries means low discounts for quantity. For fuel cells, the industry is still scaling up, which can mean high discounts are available. That then leads to a lower total cost of ownership and parity with diesel and electric buses.”
Hydrogen isn’t just about the bus, he added. “When hydrogen arrives, it brings jobs at production facilities, and brings a skill set. It enables other users to tap in to the technology too, and brings a whole ecosystem that you don’t get with electric buses.”
Euro 7
Asked about Euro 7, Buta said that anything which pushes cities to be greener has to be good. “We have very good engineers who can interpret legislation,” he said, but wouldn’t be drawn on whether a Euro 7 product was in the offing. “Right now, buses are the vanguard of change,” he said. “The focus should be around the move to zero emissions.”
“Customers such as Transport for London are driving the advancement forward ahead of legislation,” added Damian.
Whilst Switch Mobility has produced its last diesel bus, for Wrightbus that step is still some way into the future. “We’ll stop producing them when our customers don’t want them,” Buta said. “We have to ensure we have a product range to suit operators’ needs up to the 2035 cut-off date for diesel sales, unless those regulation change.”
Walking around the factory, Buta and Damian pointed out the stages of construction. The chassis, which somewhat surprisingly are finished in a smart mid-blue colour rather than the expected black, are assembled from modules including the front and rear sub-assemblies. Each segment has its own trolley of components, which not only makes the job of assembly easier, but also acts as an easy visual reference to ensure that nothing has been missed during construction. In line with expansion plans, one part of the factory was being prepared to act as an extension to the production line in the near future.
Whilst it might be assumed that it is hard to compete with products built in China, or even Eastern Europe, where labour is generally cheaper, Buta pointed out that with local production, the company is not hit with ever-increasing shipping costs, and that it has greater control over in-house skills. “I believe consumers need to be more thoughtful over where they buy things from,” he said. “A European-based product is easier to sell into the European market. We want to allow our production to do the talking, not a ‘Made in GB’ sticker. Our customers should be able to look at our product and want to buy it.”
Moving through the production halls, the chassis start to resemble the buses we recognise. The front end modules are built separately on a jig before being attached to the body, making for easier replacement in the event of an accident. Three production lines, and one finishing line, were busy at the time of CBW’s visit with double-deckers for Transport for Ireland, complete with a recently-introduced revised, larger top deck rear window, plus GB Kite single-deckers in early stages of construction for Go-Ahead, amongst others progressing through the build process. Some of the very last items to be fitted are batteries, meaning that high-value items are not sitting around at the factory for long periods of time between delivery and completion.
Look out for part two in next week’s issue, when we discuss potential replacements for the Streetlite, Wrightbus’ plans for a hydrogen coach, and look at how the make-up of the company has changed since the take-over.
