User:Mliu92/sandbox/ENC E-Z Rider II

The ENC E-Z Rider II (EZR2) is a line of low-floor mid-size transit buses available in 30', 32', and 35' nominal lengths manufactured by ENC, formerly ElDorado National–California, in Chino and Riverside, California starting from 2001. In addition to the different available lengths, the buses were sold with a variety of prime movers, ranging from conventional diesel and LNG/CNG combustion engines to diesel-electric hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell with an electric traction motor.

, a second restyling (the E-Z Rider II BRT, first introduced in 2008) is the sole model offered.

Design
ElDorado National (California) filed an application in 1994 to trademark the name E-Z Rider, and the cited date of first use is 1996; The E-Z Rider was a 30' (nominal) bus with a 152 in wheelbase, although LADOT used propane-fueled E-Z Riders with 139 in wheelbases for the DASH service.

The E-Z Rider II was introduced in 2001 to succeed the earlier model. A version with a restyled front end (E-Z Rider II MAX) was introduced in 2005 and sold alongside the original until the original was discontinued in 2007. A more visible front end restyle (E-Z Rider II BRT) was introduced in 2008, and the MAX was sold alongside the BRT until the MAX was discontinued in 2014; since 2015, the BRT is the sole model offered. The front and rear overhangs of the BRT measure 91.5 and 115 in, respectively.

It is the first heavy-duty transit bus offered by ElDorado National, who was better known previously for offering shuttle buses for universities, airport hotels, small transit fleets, and car rental services. Like most low-floor buses offered in North America, the E-Z Rider II has a partial low-floor layout, where the seating area from the rear axle to the back of the bus is on an elevated platform to provide space for the engine and transmission. The CNG fueled variant is approximately 10% more expensive than the diesel.

check if needed: The Axess BRT model increased overall length from 40 ft to 41 ft, increasing the front overhang from 94 to 100 in.

Hybrid
LADOT contracted with ISE Corporation to provide at least one E-Z Rider with a series hybrid drivetrain, in which a pair of LPG-fueled 30 kW Capstone Turbines generated electricity for a Siemens traction motor and lead-acid battery.

The E-Z Rider II was sold with hybrid electric propulsion, including at least two buses (to Big Blue Bus serving Santa Monica, California) with gasoline-electric hybrid powertrain systems integrated by ISE.

check if needed: The Axess is available with a hybrid drivetrain, at approximately a 50% premium compared to the cost of a bus with a conventional diesel engine. The supplemental electric traction motor and hybrid components are part of the EP System supplied by Allison Transmission, which automatically switches between parallel hybrid and series hybrid operation.

Fuel cell
The ThunderPower prototype bus using a UTC Power hydrogen fuel cell and a 30' E-Z Rider II chassis was tested by SunLine Transit Agency in 2002, including three months of revenue service. ThunderPower, LLC, a joint venture of Thor Industries (the parent of ElDorado National at the time) and ISE Corporation (a hybrid drivetrain integrator), designed and built the ThunderPower prototype. It was subsequently tested at Chula Vista Transit and AC Transit.

Although AFCB was part of the initial round of NFCB Program grants starting in 2006, the planned manufacturing partners, including the bus platform vendor (New Flyer), fuel cell (UTC Power), and hybrid drivetrain (ISE Corporation), all withdrew from the AFCB Project shortly after it began. ElDorado National had previously worked with SunLine on the earlier ISE/UTC ThunderVolt fuel cell/hybrid bus, supplying an E-Z Rider II 30' bus chassis in the early 2000s.

After completing the Axess BRT chassis for the first AFCB, ElDorado National delivered it to BAE Systems in New York, who integrated the hybrid drivetrain and fuel cell systems; the first AFCB was delivered to SunLine in November 2011 as fleet number FC3. Revenue service at SunLine began in January 2012; FC3 met "Buy America" certification for American-made component content.

The fuel cell variant of the Axess uses an electric drivetrain that was developed by BAE Systems as a series hybrid for hybrid bus applications and branded HybriDrive. Unlike the conventional HybriDrive, which uses a motor-generator set to power the electric traction motor, electricity is generated by a 150 kW Ballard Power Systems FCveloCity-HD6 hydrogen fuel cell, with additional power supplied by a lithium-ion storage battery capable of providing 200 kW of power and a capacity of 11.2 kW-hr. Up to 50 kg of gaseous hydrogen fuel can be stored on board, compressed to 350 bar. The electric traction motor has a continuous output rating of 215 hp and a peak output of 270 hp.

A second-generation fuel cell bus, now branded Axess-FC, was unveiled in 2019 with improved range.

Deployment
125 Axess buses were shipped to airport facilities in California and Florida in 2004 and 2005. Some of the buses shipped to Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport had diesel-electric hybrid powertrains.

AFCB operators
Before FC3 entered revenue service with SunLine Transit as the first fuel cell Axess, the E-Z Rider II-based ThunderVolt bus had been assigned SunLine Transit fleet number FC1 in 2002, and a subsequent New Flyer Industries H40LFR-based bus (originally built for BC Transit) was assigned FC2. SunLine received eight additional AFCBs with the same drivetrain as FC3 and improvements to the battery and fuel cell cooling systems between 2014 and 2018, which were assigned fleet numbers FC4 through FC12 (skipping FC7). FC7 was a variant of the Axess-based AFCB, built as a "battery dominant" bus with a lower fuel cell output.

Unlike FC3, which had its powertrain and fuel cell installed in New York, the subsequent AFCBs were all assembled entirely at ElDorado National's Riverside, California factory. By July 2018, ENC had produced 20 fuel cell buses for transit agencies throughout California, including SunLine, UC Irvine (2015), and OCTA (2016). Also in 2018, the AFCB/Axess-FC was the first fuel cell bus to complete the heavy-duty transit bus (12-year/500000 mi lifecycle) testing at Altoona, Pennsylvania.

In 2017, MBTA bus operations announced plans to test an AFCB/Axess; an earlier MBTA fuel cell bus was designed in 2008 with a Nuvera/Fiat fuel cell and a BAE HybriDrive hybrid powertrain.

Competition

 * Gillig Low Floor
 * NABI LFW
 * Neoplan AN440L
 * New Flyer Low Floor
 * New Flyer Xcelsior
 * Nova Bus LF Series
 * Orion VII