At the end of January, zero emission bus pioneer Wrightbus launched four new EV products as it revealed its plans to become a global transport leader, providing affordable options for operators to instantly decarbonise their fleets.
Two trucks – a 7.5 tonne in left-hand and right-hand drive – and two buses – a six metre and a nine metre – will be launched under the Ballymena company’s new Rightech brand, with the aim of selling across the UK, Ireland and Europe.
The company has worked closely with two Chinese manufacturers and has an agreement with them to provide the basis for the new products. However, Wrightbus engineers have spent more than 30,000 hours bringing the fleet up to the Wrightbus standard – independently testing, homologating, designing and validating every element.
At the launch event, Molly Cooper chatted with Robert Best, Director of Engineering at Wrightbus, about the new EV vehicles and how they will fit into the market.
Find the press release here for more information on the new EV Rightech vehicles and comment from Jean-Marc Gales, CEO at Wrightbus.
MC: Can you provide some background to the buses and how the idea to branch into EV came about?
RB: The nine metre bus, the Streetlight single-decker, was the first bus that we made entirely ourselves in 2012 and Wrightbus has been the market leader for about 20 years now. However, when we moved into our current zero emission strategy, the former nine metre bus didn’t work as a zero-emission vehicle. It would have required re-engineering from the ground up. The main use case of the bus in the UK was for diesel efficiency, but efficiency in EVs is transferred into range and therefore, it didn’t have the same effect and the use fell out of fashion.
Right now, I have just over 200 engineers and by the end of 2025, I’ll have 250. With my team, we looked at the total costs of building the entire new EV vehicles from the ground up plus engineering time and just didn’t work. For us, it wasn’t just about making a product, it was about making a product that was cost effective and at the right price for the market. There is no point in creating a product you can’t sell.
Can you explain what you are doing to the vehicles once they arrive from China and before they are sold as Rightech products?
Just over two years ago, we had our first meeting with one Chinese manufacturer, King Long, and they were refreshingly open. They told us that they had the products, but they were not good enough to sell in the UK and EU and getting the homologation was too difficult. The reliability was not there on the vehicles as they were.
We are using the same batteries which we have been developing with CATL for our buses. Those batteries are fitted into the vehicles by King Long, and then once we receive them, we install our software, which is something King Long just doesn’t have.
We also do the interiors and if the vehicle is left- or right-hand drive. We also work on the drive train, axle arrangement, spring exchange and dampener. For London fleets, for example, we have fitted the regulated TfL side lights, all adding to the personalisation that each fleet operator needs and wants.
The Wrightbus DNA is in each vehicle, fundamentally the bus is being majority built in China, but it’s got our name, stamp of reliability and longevity.
Many manufacturers are expanding their supply chains due to time to market and cost reduction, but if parts are needed for repairs or spares, how are Wrightbus going to provide these quickly?
A huge number of the components on this vehicle come from European companies. Although they’re manufactured in China, they can be purchased in Europe, meaning we can get them sooner than expected.
The Rightech products also come with a warranty. For example, with our nine metre bus, the vehicle comes with a warranty of two years (200,000km), the e-Drive five years, (300,000km) and the battery up to eight years (600,000km). This is provided by our partner, All Service One, covering warranty, parts and technical support with over 100 field technicians. All Service One will also be expanding to have technicians in the areas the buses are sold in, creating jobs all over the UK.
How do you think these new EV vehicles compare to others on the market?
We have comfortably built the best double decker in the last ten years and that’s because our tactic was to always create and sell premium products. However, now under Jean-Marc Gales (CEO), we are now the second cheapest on the market but have not dropped in quality.
If an operator was to buy a full-size bus from us today, we would be cheaper than most in the UK and European markets. We have been able to do this through strategic purchasing of vehicles overseas and the implementation of our engineering on the product. Plus, we have done this without compromising on the quality of the final product, which has been huge for us.
If we continue trying to improve the vehicle and making sure that we are being cost competitive, then I don’t think we will see a threat from Chinese vehicles. They will always have a place in the market because they’ll be cheaper, but if operators decide to only buy on costs, then they won’t have the trust and reliability with that product that they would have with a Wrightbus product.
For more articles like this, visit our Sustainability channel.
