[DWind]

Wow! This one has steps inside, on the driver's side to climb up. Now you do not need to climb like a monkey to perch behind the steering wheel.

[BaCkSeAtDrIVeR]

Originally Posted by rajakumar

Wondering what purpose does the normal headlight under the hood serve? Do one need to raise the hood for the lights to be used?

I have seen this on almost all longdistance buses. It is a bit like a/c on modern buildings. First, they build buildings without natural air circulation; and then put in a/c. And nwo we have buses with very restricted front that it asphyxiates the engine; so they pull up the front grille.

Originally Posted by DWind

Wow! This one has steps inside, on the driver's side to climb up. Now you do not need to climb like a monkey to perch behind the steering wheel.

I am a bit confused; all alone, the driver either enters through the passenger side, climbs "like a monkey", or "leaps like a frog" into the driver seat. The "luxury" longdistance buses at least try to make driver's entry and exit easier.

[Transsenger]

Spotted a new Volvo B7R bus at Cochin. The bus is B7R with 9400 body. And Icee travels (Kunnamkulam) becomes the third owner in Tourist segment in Kerala, after Coral (3) & Ganga(1) travels to operate Volvo. This is the 5th Volvo tourist bus in Kerala.

[teamveevee]

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/newrep...te=1&p=2272567

Divo, whose styling comes from Spanish bodybuilding company Hispano Corracera, is now a fully-owned subsidiary of Tata Motors, is BS-III compliant and powered with a 285-horse power Cummins engine. The standard variant seats 46 and can be customised according to passenger and operator requirements. He said the company was expecting to sell 300 units.
“The total size of this market is 500 units a year; we are aiming at 300 units. A 100 this year and 300 from the next,”

According to Tata there is market for only 500 units per year, but Volvo itself sells more than 500 per year. According to the report "As of now, five Divos are under trail run on the Indian roads". I am surprised no BHPians got a glimpse of it yet. I believe it is displayed in 2nd Bus & Special Vehicle Expo 2011: 9-12 March 2011: Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh

[ranjithrnath]

Originally Posted by binaiks

The new design from Prakash (ZMR, something). I was excited to see this bus. The design isn't great, but is certainly different from the regular Volvo clones we see. The bus had projector headlamps, and LED Pilot lamps!
The bus is operated by ARC, to Chennai from Madurai.

Here are 2 pictures of SMK Prakash P8000 BMR - 'Z-ONE' Design. The bus built on an Ashok Leyland 12 meter air suspension chassis with 205 HP engine.

[Ashley2]

Originally Posted by teamveevee

According to Tata there is market for only 500 units per year, but Volvo itself sells more than 500 per year...

Volvo sales figure quoted includes the 8400.
TIV for Intercity coaches still is at the level of 500 units only.

[SAE40 in veins]

Spotted an Ashok Leyland rear engined bus in Chennai with a BS 4 sticker on it. Couldn't take photos as i was on my bike at that time. What i'd thought was that the 6BT from Tatas and the 6 liter Hino from ALL are compliant only up to BS III and that no CV manufacturer in India is ready as yet with BS IV engines in the 5 - 7 liter range. Probably a case of wrong stickering

[julupani]

Well, it is not impossible to make these older engine BSIV compliant, but it would require some major changes. Generally BSIV compliance is achieved by addition of an EGR or SCR system. I dont see why such a modification would not be possible on these older engine, though some major changes would be required as I said.

I dont see much point in introducing BSIV compliant products now, as BSIV compliance will raise prices considerably, much more than the shift from BSII to BSIII has seen.

[Transsenger]

It could not be a case of wrong stickering! Sometime ago AL had won the order from MTC to supply 150 BS4 buses. Similarly recently BMTC tender for BS4 buses is in final stage. So its not surprising that AL has been first to responded with BS4 engines, just like they did for BS1, BS2 & BS3. But i have no idea about this engine type Hseries/Neptune?

BS4 being for 11 major cities, its better TML/Eicher etc bring out BS4 engines as GOI is getting ready with JnNURM phase2.

[arvi86]

Originally Posted by SAE40 in veins

Spotted an Ashok Leyland rear engined bus in Chennai with a BS 4 sticker on it. Couldn't take photos as i was on my bike at that time. What i'd thought was that the 6BT from Tatas and the 6 liter Hino from ALL are compliant only up to BS III and that no CV manufacturer in India is ready as yet with BS IV engines in the 5 - 7 liter range. Probably a case of wrong stickering

I guess you should have spotted the Intercentury Luxura. Its being tested on roads for a really long time, still have absolutely no idea when its going to be launched. I have spotted it many times (Pics attached).

IIRC, the last time I saw it, it had the BS4 sticker on it.

[SAE40 in veins]

Does anybody have any idea about the BS IV plans of ALL and TML??? As i understand, the 6 BT Cummins and Hino 6 liter from ALL are not BS IV compliant. In TML range only the 6.7 liter ISbe is BS IV compliant while for ALL, even the CRS H series(in U trucks and 12M buses) are only upto BS III. Now that 'non CNG' cities like Chennai also have to have moffusil buses regd in the city, what would these manufacturers do to get the right diesel engines for BS IV?. Or are they going to ask the corporations like TNSTC to register their buses in other depots and run it in Chennai . AFAIK It would be highly prohibitive(cost wise) to fit the ISbe onto a city bus for TML. Also to fit the 8 liter Neptune onto a city bus will not be a good option for ALL.

[julupani]

The only BSIV buses available from the stables form Tata are the CNG powered ones I beleive, both the hybrid and non-hybrid versions. I think ALL did come out with some BSIV engines, though I am not sure exactly what engines these are.

My guess is TML will not be upgrading the older 5.9L Bseries, but instead be shifting over to the newer 6.7L Bseries, once that engine is fully "Indianise" it. My guess is because the 5.9L Bseries is a really old engine now and requires an upgrade as it is. As the B-series Cummins engines will be the main-stay of Tata, once the move fully to the newer version, and TCL starts producing in large enough numbers, volumes will bring the costs down.

Though ALL will probably have to upgrade the older H-series engines, unless they have some lower capacity Neptune engines in the pipeline for the city buses.

Also remember no- matter what BSIV buses will be a good deal costlier than BSIII ones.

Though I think it would be best to start shifting over to hybrid technologies, be it Diesel or CNG hybrids. The govt should incentivise this by offering lower road-taxes and less strict emission norms for hybrid vehicles.

[SAE40 in veins]

Even i do think the same. But the point of contention is who would quote for the latest tenders from STCs for diesel BS IV buses? Agreed that BS IV is only in 11 cities and some of those cities have CNG, there is still a market out there for some BS IV diesel buses for which the only bidder would be VOLVO . STCs probably would end up paying through their noses.
Also i've heard that ALL uses SCR for their BS III and are planning EGR for their BS IV offerings(Neptune series). No idea what Cummins did on the 6 BT from BS II to III.

[Auto freak]

Originally Posted by SAE40 in veins

Also i've heard that ALL uses SCR for their BS III and are planning EGR for their BS IV offerings(Neptune series). No idea what Cummins did on the 6 BT from BS II to III.

ALL does have BS-IV diesel buses with Common rail H-series engine (160hp and 230hp) and SCR after treatment.
These are rear engine buses and i believe ALL has received tenders for supplying these buses to some STUs.
And AFAIK, ALL does not use either SCR or EGR to achieve BS-III.
Its only the trucks that ALL has not come out with in the BS-IV segment.

[julupani]

Like Autofreak says, SCR must have been used only for BSIV and not BSIII. SCR is a very costly addition and would render the price highly prohibitive if used for acieving BSIII compliance.

Generally, to achieve implementation of BSIV diesel norms either EGR or SCR systems is required along with higher quality of fuel.