This is the new Gran Artic 300, a biarticulated chassis – a bendy bus with two bending elements – that can haul 300 passengers at a time.
The flagship of Volvo's new range of buses for high-capacity urban transport, the Gran Artic is just a hair under 100 feet. And the other buses in the Artic range are still enormous. The baby Artic, available in 150- and 180-passenger variants, takes up 61 feet and 69 feet of urban road, respectively. The Super Artic 210 might be the best combination of size and carrying capacity – it's 3.2 feet longer than the Artic 180 but can handle an extra 30 passengers.
Volvo developed the Gran Artic 300 for Brazil's Bus Rapid Transit systems, and claims the new biarticulated bendy carries 30 more passengers than today's largest buses and can pick up the slack of three normal buses. That means fewer buses on the road, and therefore, reduced emissions. In theory, of course.
Volvo isn't saying when it will start selling its new South American buses, but we're eager to see what kind of impact a fleet of 300-passenger buses has not only on emissions, but the speed of public transport and the impact it has on urban drivers. And even if it makes traffic hell, we're guessing it's still better than China's weird high-riding tram/bus.
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