Well, it's a trial. Why not? In any case, a bit of research would tell you the matter is not as simple and clear cut.
For the sake of comparison, this is how the Temsa Avenue pits with its competitors in terms of weight:
| Type | Unladen (kg)
| GVW (kg)
| Payload (kg)
| Temsa Avenue
| 9,900 | 18,000 | 8,100 | ADL E300
| 8,800 | 14,400 | 5,600 | Volvo B7RLE/Wright Eclipse Urban (Mk.1)
| 11,300 | 19,000 | 7,700 | Mercedes Citaro
| 10,770* | 19,000 | 8,230 | Scania Omnilink
| 11,640 | 19,000 | 7,360 | MAN 18.240/E300
| 9,940
| 18,000
| 8,060
| Optare Tempo
| 9,700(?) | 17,800 | 8,100 |
* Kerb weight i.e. fuel, oil and driver inclusive
Taking the E300 out of question - it is a supermidi and understandably less capable payload-wise - the Avenue compares favourably with the Volvo, Scania and Merc. However, it is not the only game in town - the Tempo and the MAN/E300 for instance, are pretty much on par with the Avenue.
Which brings us into the question - how many Tempos and MANs are being sold in the UK anyway? Fact is, Volvo, Scania and Mercedes are still outselling both of them, and there must be reasons behind it. I'm not writing off the Avenue, but it's too early to speculate it would be the download of the heavier types, in much the same way the E300/SB200 did not spell doom to them.
In any case, First have already set the challenge to Wrightbus and Volvo to get the weight down for their products. From what I understand, the target is to lose at least 1,000kg for a whole vehicle. In a way, I assume the trial of the Avenue is to put some pressure to Volvo and Wright to make progress more quickly.
As for Temsa itself, this is a very interesting acticle about the manufacturer:
http://www.busandcoach.com/featurepage.aspx?id=2750&categoryid=2 |
