Arriva plans to fit a large proportion of its single-deck fleet with the Flybrid fuel-saving device originally developed for Formula One racing cars and being taken up by Wrightbus as a low cost alternative to electric hybrids. Its installation creates energy by spinning a flywheel when a vehicle is braking and this energy is used to restart the vehicle and propel it up to a speed of about 20mph, after which the diesel engine takes over. Claimed savings are for a 15% reduction in fuel consumption. Arriva will have one bus so fitted running on a test track shortly and plans to retrofit at least two buses for service trials later this year. If successful, the Flybrid could be fitted to all new Wright StreetLites delivered in 2015 and would also be retrofitted to around 400 of the Wright Pulsar-bodied VDL SB200s already in the fleet.
展开▼
