Yutong Buses

[sharksmith]

Just spent a couple of nights in Cardiff for work and took the chance to catch up on the local bus scene there.

The one thing which struck me was that I was able to photograph 34 out of the 36 Yutongs they operate. If I had been able to spare half an hour before I left this morning I could have snapped the other two as well as they were out today.

Unusual I thought not to have at least one or two off the road for a while. Compared to their batch of E200MMC's where only 2 out of 7 appeared over the three days, 2 were out in November and the others hadn't tracked at all.

I got to wondering about the other Yutong operators and sure enough all 9 of the Leeds vehicles were in service today. All 9 of Go North Easts were also out today.

I called in to Newport on the way back home as South Wales is the hotbed of Yutong use in the UK and photographed 25 of the 46 that Newport Bus have of the type in an hour. Hard to say if any are long term off road as their tracking hasn't been working recently but it does show all but two in service since 29 November.

So out of 100 buses at least 98 have earned their keep in the last 10 days which I thought was pretty remarkable.

There are a lot of negative reactions when you mention Yutong, and I don't know how long they will last. A lot of them are now in the region of three years old now though and do appear to be pretty reliable so far.

Would be nice to see a local operator try out one of the deckers which First South Yorkshire have used/are using as someone pointed out more than a passing resemblance to an ECW VR, one of my favourites, which I can't now unsee.

[kendall17]

Judging by what everyone says on the forums, the support by Pelican is second to none and for that reason, I think they certainly will last. You dont see too many early coaches hitting the market for a reason.

As you say, 98% of vehicles in service in the last 10 days is mightily impressive.

[MetrolineGA1511]

I prefer Yutongs with Go North East and Cardiff to those with First Leeds or Newport.

[MetrolineGA1511]

Rail Forums have listed the Yutongs for Stagecoach South Yorkshire as numbered 73002-24 and potentially entering service on May 6th (even though it is a Bank Holiday).

[rodneytrotter]

I don't think the likes of ADL can offer the same build quality and support as Yutong products. MCV and Yutong are for me probably the best 2 bus manufacturers in the market at the moment.

Believe in Wales, they have just introduced the minibus-size version of the Yutong.

[MetrolineGA1511]

Apr 28, 2024 8:52:37 GMT 1 rodneytrotter said:

I don't think the likes of ADL can offer the same build quality and support as Yutong products. MCV and Yutong are for me probably the best 2 bus manufacturers in the market at the moment.

Believe in Wales, they have just introduced the minibus-size version of the Yutong.

Certainly Newport has several sizes of Yutong buses now.

[dwarfer1979]

Apr 28, 2024 8:52:37 GMT 1 rodneytrotter said:

I don't think the likes of ADL can offer the same build quality and support as Yutong products. MCV and Yutong are for me probably the best 2 bus manufacturers in the market at the moment.

Believe in Wales, they have just introduced the minibus-size version of the Yutong.

As with any model there are advantages & disadvantages and everyone will have a different view. Yutongs have a very high back end for an electric bus and some aspects of the design mean seating capacity is not as high as other models (our E12's only seat 39, these replaced identical length 45-seat diesels, & E10's only seat 33, the same as the previous 9m Solos). Ours are starting to rattle a bit but that may be more down to the number of speed humps & poor road surfaces in the estates they serve than any particular issue with the design & build but it does show it is difficult to be too general on comparison between vehicle types. On the plus side, as has been suggested elsewhere, the support from Pelican is pretty good, the range is generally fairly market leading & the overall performance has proved pretty good. Whilst the BYD based ADL variants have similar compromises to the Yutongs, and with lower claimed range, the newly launched complete ADL products look much better in these respects with seating capacities matching similar diesel models (total capacity probably won't match due to the extra weight of batteries but I have always felt seating capacity is important but standing should never be relied on regularly) with a claimed range and tested energy efficiency that is market leading which suggests a promising product though as always judgement should be reserved until actual experience is achieved to prove what is claimed or assumed from visual impression.

Newport have received the first single-door version of the E9 (the E9L), dual-door versions (E9) were already in service in Leicester & Hereford on city centre shuttles - the original E9 model introduced couldn't be provided as a single-door vehicle as the front end didn't allow wheelchair access through the front doors so it had to be redesigned for the general UK market. Newport have also just put into service the first double-deckers delivered to an operator.