Public and Commercial Transport

[Ross_K]

Tesla have issued a video of one of its Semi Rigs doing a 500 mile journey on one charge saying that if it wasn't for the hills on the route it would have been nearer 600 miles.
...

There is a lot of negativity online about Tesla trucks. I just can't sort out how much is purely aimed at Elon Musk and how much will be true.

I think there's a lot of negativity about Tesla in general, a lot of it rightly deserved by the company itself..and Musk, the "great showman", who you absolutely cannot take at his word.

Parts availability is one thing that comes to mind. Saw a guy on YouTube the other day who was told by Tesla that windscreens for whichever model he had were on backorder, and were due in about six (!) months. There are similar stories about the big screen in the console which controls heating, audio, etc.

I wonder how many haulage companies could afford to take a truck off the road for months while they wait for something as simple as a windscreen?

In Europe Scania already have electric models on the market (albeit with a 350km range), but I think most potential electric truck buyers would go with a known player and an established service network: https://www.scania.com/group/en/home/pr ... truck.html

[Gibbo2286]

Scania like most of the European vehicle industry is just another branch of the Volkswagen Group, do MAN trucks another VW co. also have an EV model?

[Ross_K]

MAN have electric trucks too, and a nice website where you can calculate the range per model

https://www.man.eu/de/en/truck/range-ca ... check.html

London-Glasgow (659km) is do-able with one charging stop apparently

[CitroJim]

Out on my bike today and I saw a meeting of the local steam roller owners club in session at a pub

Had a quick chat with them

[Gibbo2286]

I could do with having one of those run up and down my front lawns Jim.

[CitroJim]

I could do with having one of those run up and down my front lawns Jim.

That would work a treat... Condensate from the boilers would water them too

We could do with them to fix a few potholes around these parts after they've sorted your lawn Robin

[myglaren]

Take a 14-mile trip on an autonomous Scottish bus starting next month

Travelers looking to get from Fife to Edinburgh will soon have a new transport option: a fleet of five autonomous buses set to begin operating in Scotland on a 14-mile route this May.

Running from Ferrytoll Park and Ride near the Forth Road Bridge to the Edinburgh Park Transport Interchange, the bus route is claimed to be the first registered autonomous bus operation in the UK. On the 14-mile route the buses will travel up to 50 miles per hour in mixed traffic, and will have the capacity for around 10,000 passenger journeys per week.

[Gibbo2286]

That's not to say passengers on the CAVForth route will find themselves on a bus without an operator - quite the opposite: There will be two staff members on board to handle operation of the autonomous vehicle. We note that old-fashioned human-driven buses typically only require a single person to operate.

For the foreseeable future, the autonomous buses will operate with a safety driver up front monitoring the technology, and a "captain" in the passenger cabin "to take tickets and answer customers questions," CAVForth said.

[NewcastleFalcon]

A month or so in the doldrums but there are always news stories and links to provide content for this thread.

From the pages of Electrive.com always a decent source for news stories on such matters

MAN decides against developing Euro-7 buses

Bus manufacturer MAN will not invest in Euro 7 technology and instead will only have zero-emission buses in its portfolio for cities and municipalities from 2030.

https://www.electrive.com/2023/06/05/ma ... o-7-buses/

Fleet news is also a decent source of the latest in public and commercial transport, increasingly its pages are "electrifying".

At random

Openreach deal for 8,500 charge points to help electrify fleet vehicles

https://www.commercialfleet.org/news/ne ... t-vehicles

Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

This always seems to be in the same position, few cobwebs appearing, but I reckon its still a viable vehicle.
Always makes a nice picture.

Falcon Original

Falcon Original

Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

I like a light commercial...

Lovely badgery
falcon original

Nearly horizontal steering wheel, nice in white with the red centre badge
falcon original

The whole shebang
falcon original

Neil

[CitroJim]

They're iconic Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

A brief mention was made here about a variant of the Austin/Morris/BMC/Leyland FG light commercial.

viewtopic.php?p=761892#p761892

This was the ordinary FG this one in Chip Van guise, by Robert Knight on Flickr

107 Austin FG Fish + Chip Van (1967) by Robert Knight, on Flickr

Scroll Down and Robert has an excellent description to read. In which he also mentions the FM variant which was supplied almost exclusively to Post-Office Telephones in the UK...The engine was placed further forward giving the FG a "nose" or Bonnet! Only one image on the net that I have found, not available for embedding but worth a look at the

link... Post Office Telephones FM Van
https://flic.kr/p/DXAeUL

Neil

[CitroJim]

Love that! I now fancy some fish and chips - without chips!

[NewcastleFalcon]

A link from Robert Knight's pic led to this group on flickr which also has a handful of images of the FM, this one has an embed code to share for a bulletin board.

BMC FM by teapotcircus, on Flickr

Neil