ARCC, a technology and manufacturing brand in its seventh year, is continually advancing its future thinking regarding reimagining how a bus with zero emissions should be built. Aluminium Revolutionary Chassis Company (ARCC) has sometimes produced zero-emissions buses and coaches like other companies in the industry.
ARCC personnel were heavily involved in designing and deploying its first aluminium body on a Toro electric bus for Sydney Airport and further units for Brisbane Airport in 2015. The lessons learned from these initiatives formed the basis for the concepts that ARCC's engineers and management team recognised as having the potential to alter the future of zero-emissions bus and coach manufacture in Australia.
Peter Murley, the Founder and Managing Director of ARCC, said, "We decided to chase reducing kilograms rather than adding kilowatts, using the ethos of doing more with less."
"Our goal was to achieve at least a two-tonne reduction in the overall GVM of our bus, envisaging a disruptive technology that addressed and solved several challenges that the industry faces."
"We chased weight savings, manufacturing hours and local component solutions that would allow integration opportunities with existing industry members and service providers, with the goal being to redesign the way zero-emissions buses can be conceived, built and operated in Australia."
In 2016, Murley founded ARCC, realised the growing tides of a zero-emissions bus transition, and went on a fact-finding mission to China. One significant fact became clear after visiting various electric chassis manufacturers there.
Murley added, "The largest electric bus chassis manufacturer was great at building batteries, but not buses. We witnessed large deployments of zero-emissions buses with charging infrastructure to match. Still, the power to charge them was generally sourced from coal power stations, which we believe was a just emission shifting."
The manufacturer's plans for zero-emission buses focused on creating a bolted aluminium solution for the body and chassis, offering significant weight, manufacturing time, and capital expenditure reductions in a model-independent of the driving energy source.
The goal of ARCC, which aims to pioneer Australia's zero-emissions commercial vehicle manufacturing capabilities, goes far beyond developing new ideas for innovative electric and hydrogen bus designs.
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