Media Release by ARCC
Aluminium Revolutionary Chassis Company (ARCC), the developer and manufacturer of Australia’s first lightweight bolted aluminium city bus chassis, has secured strategic investment from Macquarie Group and Origin Energy.
ARCC, an Australian-owned company, has developed a lightweight aluminium bus chassis that reduces fuel and energy consumption while allowing a greater passenger capacity compared to other zero-emission buses on the market. The ARCC team has also designed a streamlined, bolted assembly process that cuts production time and supports localised, Australian manufacturing.
Peter Murley, Managing Director at ARCC said: “ARCC’s bolted aluminium bus chassis has been developed from proven bus building technologies and techniques to reduce the weight of its buses by up to two tonnes. For ARCC’s customers the lighter buses can carry more passengers while using less energy, leading to further savings through a reduction in costly charging infrastructure and grid upgrade requirements.”
The ARCC chassis also features a modular design that allows for in-service interchangeability between the rooftop battery electric or hydrogen fuel cell propulsion units, offering operators the opportunity to adopt zero-emission technology that is energy source agnostic.
“Together with the support of Macquarie Group and Origin Energy, ARCC can forge forward and capitalise on its unique creation to accelerate the net zero transition of Australia’s public transport system using Australian designed, built and delivered solutions,” Mr Murley said.
Andrew Robertson, Head of Structured Lending in Macquarie Group’s Commodities and Global Markets division said: “We are proud to be supporting the advancement of decarbonisation solutions for our clients, in this case an innovative, Australian manufacturer’s development of a practical efficiency initiative for the transportation sector.”
Ryan Willemsen-Bell, General Manager of Future Fuels at Origin said: “Cleaner fuels and new technologies are crucial for the mass transit revolution, with battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles promising options for decarbonising passenger transport. Compared to diesel buses, both battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell buses offer the advantages of low pollution, noise reduction and use of renewable energies. Origin is pleased to be supporting ARCC as part of our focus on the development of cleaner technologies that can help accelerate decarbonisation across the economy.” ARCC is now offering bus and service providers retrospective and turnkey manufacturing solutions employing its unique aluminium chassis, together with local after-sales and technical service support.
