We are a consortium that has developed a process for retrofitting and refurbishing deprecated diesel-driven busses with electric-powered drive systems at the end of their service life. After 7-9 years diesel engines of busses are usually worn out, but the body structures are generally still in a very good condition and provide a high potential for being refurbished and retrofitted with electric powered drive systems. The successful operation of a first retrofitted demo-bus in public transport has generated considerable interest in the bus operator’s community and thus presumes a great commercial potential. Therefore, we decided to scale-up our retrofit approach by establishing a serial production line to achieve a cost-efficient way of retrofitting and to enter the market of e-busses thus stimulating greener and sustainable mobility.
Objective of phase 1 was to verify the technical and the economic feasibility of the business idea, to find suitable partners and commit them to the project, to outline the overall concept of the serial retrofitting production line and to elaborate the draft work plan for the phase 2 project.
Within the phase 1 of the project we arranged three joint meetings with the envisaged project participants. In the result we determined all phase 2 project partners as well as 3rd party participants of the consortium (project manager and coordinator, technical providers for the retrofitting process covering the whole value chain, end users such as two bus operators/ public transport companies). We also established the technical and financial outline of the whole project including the definition of all necessary tasks, resources and technical requirements as well as all involved costs (personal costs, material costs, development / adaptation costs, investment costs, sales revenues, cost distribution among project partners, long-term financing planning / liquidity planning). We refined our marketing strategy, adjusted our approach to new challenges revealed by the feasibility study and elaborated an advanced commercialization concept for Phase 2.
