Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - February 2022 - 20

ORIGINAL
EQUIPMENT
Mellor Bus stresses lightweight construction for new midsized
battery-electric buses
Nicolson business, there are touch
points of zero-emission vehicles in all
our businesses, " Randerson explained.
" Bus primarily has had by far the most
significant uptick in terms of business
investment, people and facilities because
bus in this country and elsewhere
globally has been way ahead of
all the commercial-vehicle sectors in
terms of uptake. "
Mellor Bus's background has been in
Mellor Bus's new range of battery-electric midsized buses come to market later in 2022, starting
with the 7-meter-long Sigma 7 and 10-meter-long Sigma 10.
U.K.-based bus manufacturer Mellor
Bus has recently launched a completely
new range of battery-electric midsized
buses under the Sigma brand name.
First to market later in 2022 will be the
7-meter (23-ft) long Sigma 7 and
10-meter (32-ft 10-in) long Sigma 10.
These two models will be followed by
four others: Sigma 8, Sigma 9, Sigma 11
and Sigma 12.
The focus for the company has been
to produce the Sigma range using lightweight
construction methods, designed
to allow for smaller battery capacities to
consequently reduce energy consumption
and shorten recharging times.
Partner component manufacturers include
CATL, Wabco, Webasto, ZF, Dana
and Ventura. CATL supplies all the batteries
for the range and the drive motors
all are supplied by Dana. All Sigma
models will carry full EU Type Approval.
Mellor is part of the U.K.-based
Woodall Nicolson Group of specialist
vehicle manufacturing companies, which
includes Binz International, Coleman
Milne, J M Engineering, Promech
Technologies, Treka Bus and VCS Ltd.
Mellor Bus chief technology officer for
the Woodall Nicolson Group John
Randerson told Truck & Off-Highway
Engineering that the company had ap20
February 2022
plied its strategy of making the vehicles
as size-, cost- and weight-appropriate
as possible.
" Our job is to provide as much flexibility
in terms of the solution to our
customer base, be that in the blue light
sector, the bus sector, even in the funeral
car business, where we have just
launched a Tesla-based hearse vehicle,
so if you look across the wider Woodall
converting vehicles into small buses
based on vehicles built by mainstream
vehicle manufacturers. It has no history
of building completely new combustion-engine
buses of its own design in
the midsize bus category. " We have no
preconceived ideas, no back catalogue
of diesel-engine vehicles to have to
work around, " Randerson said.
The company is not working with a
vehicle originally designed to be powered
by a diesel engine that now needs
to accommodate electric power, including
the power electronics and batteries.
" If you have no preceding design and
you have a history and expertise in
lightweight technology, it allows you to
almost roll up into a ball what went before,
chuck it and then come up with
Sigma 7, 8 and 9 models will be driven by a Dana e-axle.
TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
ALL IMAGES: MELLOR BUS

Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - February 2022

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