{"id":464,"date":"2026-06-27T21:55:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T19:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/2026\/06\/27\/australias-first-locally-manufactured-articulated-electric-bus-debuts-on-volvos-new-bzl-ea-chassis\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T22:05:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T20:05:52","slug":"australias-first-locally-manufactured-articulated-electric-bus-debuts-on-volvos-new-bzl-ea-chassis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/2026\/06\/27\/australias-first-locally-manufactured-articulated-electric-bus-debuts-on-volvos-new-bzl-ea-chassis\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia’s first locally manufactured articulated electric bus debuts on Volvo’s new BZL EA chassis"},"content":{"rendered":"

The collaboration between Volvo Buses and Australia’s largest bus body manufacturer, Volgren, owned by the Brazilian Marcopolo group, has resulted in the creation of the first articulated electric bus manufactured in Australia. The 18-meter-long, fully electric vehicle was produced at Volgren’s Malaga facility in Western Australia for the Public Transport Authority (PTA), the state organization responsible for the entire public transport system in Western Australia. The bus combines Volvo’s brand-new BZL Electric (EA) Articulated zero-emission chassis technology with a locally designed and manufactured Volgren body.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although Volgren now builds bodies for various chassis manufacturers, including Scania, Mercedes-Benz, and Yutong, its relationship with Volvo remains special. The collaboration dates back nearly half a century and has been so significant in the company’s history that the name Volgren itself is a combination of Volvo and the founding Grenda family’s name. The first joint bus was completed in 1979, making the newly introduced articulated electric bus the latest result of a nearly five-decade partnership.<\/p>\n

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Another unique aspect of Volgren is that since its founding, the company has built its aluminum bodies based on Swiss Hess technology. The collaboration began in the late 1970s, and the construction has continuously evolved into the system now known as Co-Bolt\u00ae. The frame structure, made from extruded aluminum profiles, is assembled with bolted joints rather than welding, which the manufacturer claims better withstands the continuous vibrations and dynamic loads experienced by buses compared to traditional welded structures.<\/p>\n

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The articulated electric bus introduced now features the Volgren Optimum eBus aluminum body, paired this time with the Volvo Buses low-floor BZL EA articulated chassis. The solo version of the construction debuted in Australia in 2022, when the Western Australian Public Transport Authority (PTA) first introduced Volvo BZL Electric\u2013Volgren Optimum electric buses into service<\/a>. Since then, more than 140 such vehicles have been in operation nationwide, making the newly completed articulated version an advancement of a proven platform with extensive operational experience and established technical background. The vehicle also marks the official debut of the articulated version of the Volvo BZL EA platform<\/a>, as the Swedish manufacturer’s electric city bus platform was previously only available in a solo version.<\/p>\n

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The 18-meter bus is powered by Volvo’s well-known twin electric motor drive system, which provides a combined nominal power of 334 kW and a peak power of 400 kW through two electric motors. The power is transmitted via a two-speed automated Volvo I-Shift gearbox, which drives the C axle through a summation gearbox.<\/p>\n

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The vehicle is equipped with the largest available energy storage for the BZL Electric chassis, consisting of 12 battery modules with a total capacity of 497 kWh. The batteries are entirely located on the roof: eight modules on the front body and four on the rear, with two directly behind the articulation mechanism and two at the end of the body.<\/p>\n

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Interestingly, the right-hand drive BZL EA chassis for the Australian market differs in battery technology from Volvo’s previous practice. While electric Volvo buses and main units sold in Europe and other markets are equipped with NCA (nickel-cobalt-aluminum) chemistry batteries, the Australian version features a battery pack made of LFP (lithium iron phosphate) cells manufactured by CATL.<\/p>\n

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So far, two units of this type have been built, which will join the Transperth fleet. The vehicles will begin trial runs in the northern suburbs of Perth in the coming weeks and are expected to enter passenger service in August 2026. The articulated electric buses, officially capable of carrying about 105 passengers, will be deployed on the network’s busiest routes.<\/p>\n

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The collaboration between Volvo Buses and Australia’s largest bus body manufacturer, Volgren, owned by the Brazilian Marcopolo group, has resulted in the creation of the first articulated electric bus manufactured in Australia. The 18-meter-long, fully electric vehicle was produced at Volgren’s Malaga facility in Western Australia for the Public Transport Authority (PTA), the state organization […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-outlook"],"acf":{"mbi_related_box_multiple":"","mbi_gallery_enabled":false,"mbi_gallery_manual_order":"Kompakt","mbi_gallery_source":"Ehhez a cikkhez felt\u00f6lt\u00f6tt k\u00e9pek","mbi_gallery_images":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":466,"href":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions\/466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magyarbusz.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}