In 1946, Robert Wright and his son founded the company ‘Wright & Son Coachbuilders’. On 14 August 2023, UTM published a detailed portrait of this manufacturer.
Wright was very quickly successful in its two home markets of Great Britain and Ireland. Not only did the company build buses, but it also continued to provide significant impetus to bus construction with new designs. For example, aluminium was used for the bodies of its buses at a time when other manufacturers were still ‘adamantly’ sticking to steel bodies. The advantages of aluminium: aluminium is lighter (weight that I don’t have to move doesn’t cost any energy) and aluminium doesn’t rust.
For a long time, Wrightbus remained limited to its two home markets. This may have been due to the fact that in Wrightbus’ home country, the buses drove on the left-hand side of the road, whereas everywhere else in Europe they drove on the right. As a result, Wright buses had the doors and driver’s seat on the ‘wrong’ side for all countries outside Britain and Ireland.
So if you wanted to deliver to the rest of Europe, you also needed buses for right-hand traffic. Now this is not an insurmountable technical problem – other manufacturers ‘from the continent’ from countries with right-hand traffic also supplied vehicles of their standard types with doors on the left-hand side of the vehicle. One example is a series of Mercedes Citaro articulated buses that were delivered to London (called ‘Bendibus’ there). The chassis of the bus for doors on the opposite, ‘wrong’ side only has to be designed in such a way that no significant elements of the vehicle are in the way of the installation of doors.
In 2002, Wrightbus delivered a series of buses of its ‘Commander’ type to the Netherlands (to Arriva Nederland, coaches 5920 to 5999). However, only the bodywork was made by Wright, the coaches were based on the DAF chassis ‘DE 02 CS SB 200’. They were used for regional transport.
With its new ‘Kite’ series, Wrightbus then developed a bus that was designed from the outset for both domestic left-hand traffic and ‘European’ right-hand traffic.
At the same time, Wright was one of the first to use alternative drive systems. In other words, both the buses with battery-electric drive (type designation ‘Kite Electroliner’) and those with fuel cell drive (type designation ‘Kite Hydroliner’). Wrightbus emphasises that the electric drive is identical for both types, the only difference is where the traction current comes from.
Regionalverkehr Köln (RVK) is the first ‘continental European’ company to order buses of the new ‘Kite’ series for right-hand traffic from Wrightbus. This involves 40 ‘Kite Hydroliner FCEV’ vehicles with fuel cells from the Canadian manufacturer Ballard, the first 21 of which have now been completed and have started their journey to the Rhineland on low-loaders.
RVK was not the only customer for fuel cell buses for right-hand traffic at Wrightbus for long. It was followed by ‘west Verkehrs GmbH’ from Geilenkirchen (Heinsberg district) with 12 vehicles, ‘Saarbahn’ from Saarbrücken with an order for 28 vehicles and ‘Cottbusverkehr’ from Cottbus in Brandenburg with an impressive 46 vehicles.
Wrightbus wants to grow through exports – the export share was 27% in 2023. The British government is supporting Wright’s efforts.
17.10.2024
