The Northern Irish bus manufacturer announced its re-entry into the British coach market with the launch of a new diesel model and the promised launch of a fuel cell electric variant in the near future.

Wrightbus’ ‘Streetdeck Hydroliner Gen 2.0’ was developed over four years as part of a project which was 50% funded by a grant from the Advanced Propulsion Centre.

The brand, called ‘Rightech’, has a strategic framework agreement with two Chinese manufacturers to distribute and service four vehicle models, two of which are trucks.

The ‘StreetDeck Ultroliner’, which was originally launched in 2014, will now be offered with a Cummins ‘B6.7’ engine, replacing the six-cylinder Daimler ‘OM936’ which was used before.

The Northern Irish bus manufacturer says that the acquisition of RGI will mean that its retrofit business, dubbed ‘NewPower’, will now be able to refurbish old buses in addition to replacing their engines with electric powertrains.

Stagecoach told Truck & Bus Builder that the 715 buses come from a range of different suppliers, including: Alexander Dennis; Wrightbus; Pelican Yutong; and Volvo Buses.

Over 90% of these will be zero-emission, drawn from the manufacturer’s ranges of battery electric and fuel cell electric single and double deckers.

Cenex is the UK’s premier event for the future of mobility, combining insights from the Low Carbon Vehicle (LCV) and Connected Automated Mobility (CAM) sectors.

The ’CoacH2’ project, worth GBP1.2m and including partners such as Translink and Queen’s University Belfast, aims to produce an electric vehicle which can meet the demands of coach operation, including heavy payloads and long-distance routes.

Seeing Machines’ technology, which tracks the driver’s face and behaviour to identify and react to distraction or drowsiness, was tested and certified successfully for use in buses produced by Wrightbus.

Wrightbus has chosen the Zen Plus batteries due to their high energy density (180 Wh/kg) and long cycle life (5,000). The Zen Plus battery utilises a 77 kWh NMC lithium-ion cells.

After NewPower successfully converted two diesel buses to run on battery electric for First Bus, the operator placed an order for a further thirty buses.