Jonathan Welch speaks to the team behind Ricardo’s hydrogen double-decker conversion to see how the project is progressing
Back in August 2022, we spoke to Ricardo’s Andrew Ennever about the company’s project to re-engineer an ex-London Stagecoach Alexander Dennis Enviro400 double-decker with a hydrogen power plant. As we started off by explaining in the feature in issue 1539, Ricardo is a name with which many may be familiar, though few might grasp the wide variety of engineering-led projects that it undertakes, or realise the breadth of sectors across which it operates. Some may know it for its work on engines, or in the motorsport arena, others through its work on tanks, aircraft, cars, transmissions, locomotives, defence, motorcycles,… the list is varied, but the one thing that draws them all together is the company’s focus on developing strategic and engineering – and increasingly environmental, as the world in which it operates changes – solutions.
Founded in 1885 by Harry (later Sir Harry) Ricardo, the company was recently appointed as an official Ducati supplier for 2023, as well as being commissioned to define a single harmonised European life cycle assessment standard for zero-emission vehicles and batteries, giving an idea of the scope of its activities.
A few months on, and finding myself on the south coast of England for other upcoming features, it seemed like a good time to catch up with some of the Ricardo team behind the bus project to see how it has progressed, and take a closer look myself; a short video of the bus in action will also be on our YouTube channel soon.
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