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Seems like there'd be significant savings in having multiple municipalities or even entire states coordinate their bus orders. It seems especially silly to ord
by DubiousPusher 8y ago
Seems like there'd be significant savings in having multiple municipalities or even entire states coordinate their bus orders.
It seems especially silly to order a custom looking bus because this would obviously raise the price of replacement parts. Is this part of why old buses always look like crap? Cities don't want to pay the crazy cost of replacing a custom part that is clearly damaged or worn out.
- jessaustin 8y agoCity buses are not the only large vehicles that typically are manufactured after purchase. Firetrucks, concrete trucks, and many limousines are the same. If you're going to build it by hand on demand anyway, why not add value by building exactly what the customer wants? So long as designs stay within an engineering envelope, which envelope can be pretty broad when we're talking about something as simple as an electric bus, it doesn't add much cost to accommodate the customer's particular needs. If those needs extend to having a particular number of body panels in stock for future repairs, that's fine. Nothing mechanical in the drivetrain would be custom (although I suppose the batteries might be, apparently they have a guarantee).
- inferiorhuman 8y agoFleet standardization can work (see the old PCC trams) or it might not work (see Boeing's disastrous trams).