The B5LH is a low-floor hybrid double-deck bus chassis, available with Wrightbus, ADL or MCV bodywork, and is said to offer best-in-class fuel economy and high reliability.
Arriva was the first company to try out the new hybrid in the UK when six were supplied following the launch in 2009 and, to date, 2,535 Volvo Hybrids have been sold worldwide.
Phil Owen, commercial sales director for Volvo Bus, describes the milestone as “as a significant sales achievement”, adding: “The B5LH has been giving outstanding results here and worldwide and, thanks to the reliability, fuel savings and overall performance of this bus, we have worked with our longstanding customers to keep selling this popular vehicle.
“With ongoing development of the B5LH in combination with the new versatile bodybuilder options, we hope to continue to retain the sales success we have seen in recent years.”
Richard Shillingford, engineering director for RATP Dev London, says: “One of the biggest considerations in any vehicle procurement is fuel efficiency and reliability, and we felt that Volvo Bus’ performance gave us what we were looking for with our new fleet additions going forwards.”
A longstanding customer of Volvo Bus is Go-Ahead London. Engineering director Richard Harrington says: “We are one of the largest operators of Volvo buses in the UK and Ireland and the biggest bus operator in London, and our continued patronage of the product is based on our previous good experience of excellent in-service performance and reliability.”