(04 Aug 2020, 9:16 pm)Storx wrote The problem is it is too weak though, it's in no-where land. People who want a powerful bus will go for for something more powerful as it's not good enough, the fact Transdev have changed has pretty much proved this.

Those who want a cheap bus will go for a Streetdeck or Enviro as they're cheaper.

Then those who want a Volvo bus and the B5TL is powerful enough  will go for the B5LH as it's better for the environment and more eco friendly. The sales for the B5TL has pretty much proved this as there's no-one who really use it.


https://volvobusesenvironmentblog.wordpr...ids-in-uk/

Also if that's true the improvement for the B5TL over the B9TL isn't particually great. Whatever way you look at the B5TL is doing horrendously sales wise in comparison to the B7TL/B9TL and you just have to look at GNE who bought one batch and then went straight back to the Streetdeck for the Angel / X21.

Isn't the B5H considerably more expensive than even the standard B5 though? Depending on the route the increased price may not be recoverable in the fuel savings. Plus, going from that it looks as thought the StreetDecks and B5LH are pretty much on par in terms of fuel economy!

Hypothetically, if a bus does 200 miles a day, which seems about average for some of GNE's routes. At a fuel price of £1.20 it'd cost about £215 per day with a B9, £185 with a B5, and £135 with a B5H. If we extrapolate that over a year, in fuel alone they'd be looking at around £75k for the B9, £65K for the B5, and just under £50k for the B5H.
Now, going from the lifespan of the Hybrid system on the Coaster Hybrids, they're looking at removing it after 7 years.
So after 7 years, the fuel savings of going with a B5 over a B9 would only be around £70k, but going with the hybrid over the B9 would be the best part of £200k (not far from the price of a new StreetDeck!)

Obviously these figures are probably not realistic in the slightest, but with the StreetDecks supposedly getting the same economy as the Hybrids, you can see why they went with the StreetDecks over the B5s for the Angel! But, like you say, if you want a B5, it totally makes sense to go for the Hybrid instead!