Earlier this year, we reported on a new conventional school bus coming to market from Hino Trucks and Starcraft, the latter which up until a year and a half ago only manufactured white commercial buses and shuttles.
A prototype, we were told in January, was expected to be released at school transportation industry trade shows starting this spring or in early summer. Which prompted questions to Starcraft recently when nothing new about the Type C had been released in several months. David Wright, Starcraft’s GM, responded that, indeed, there had been some production delays.
Evidently, the bus is “a little behind schedule” due to necessary chassis modifications, but Wright added that both companies still expect summer completion. This would appear to mean that the new Type C prototype could be available for perusal at the STN EXPO Trade Show in Reno on July 27, as more information on the new bus was expected over the coming weeks.
Besides what the vehicle will look like, two sources of interest would be the vehicle’s construction and the diesel engine. Like in its small Type A school bus models, Starcraft planned on constructing the body on the Type C Hino chassis with reinforced fiberglass plastic, which would also be subject to federal side-intrusion tests. Hino, like all other medium- and heavy-duty truck and bus manufacturers not named Navistar also opted for the SCR solution to the 2010 EPA engine emissions requirements.
Meanwhile, school buses are not the only new vehicles being pursued by Hino, as the company recently debuted its new ambulance chassis.
