Talk:Volvo Gran Artic 300
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Just another flavour of the B12M? (merge proposal)
[edit]Ever since its press release almost four years ago, I got the impression that this was only a new stretched and strengthened bi-articulated configuration of the Volvo B12M. There was little or no actual technical information at the time, but I remember I found a video from an auto show where the chassis was displayed. It looked similar to the B12M in all possible ways and had the same DH12 engine. It was launched together with several other B12M (B340M) configurations; Artic 150 (18,6m), Artic 180 (21m) and Super Artic 210 (22m).
I just did a quick search now and I don't really find any mention of any Gran Artic 300 ever being sold. The closest thing I found was this report about the delivery of 25 buses built on a 28-metre B340M Gran Artic in 2017. (I don't understand the language, so my impression is based on a lousy machine translation.) Obviously my quick search may have missed something, but chances are that the Gran Artic 300 so far only exist in the shape of a prototype chassis, and that there aren't even any bodywork yet.
Volvo presented this as the world's largest bus (chassis), and got a lot of press coverage because of that, but they all blindly refered to Volvo's claim and I didn't see any actual journalism trying to state if it in fact was the largest bus. Since we don't know if any exist with bodywork we can't tell if it may be the longest, but we do for a fact know that the AutoTram Extra Grand is 30,73m, but because it being a low-floor bus has a lot lower capasity. (The AutoTram Extra Grand seems to be a one-off prototype too.)
If it wasn't for the fact that the Gran Artic 300 got massive mainstream media coverage (compared to other bus models) I would have suggested the article for deletion, but it would be better to merge it into the B12M article. It should there be mentioned alongside the other configurations that were presented at the same time. And the "world's largest" claims could preferably be toned down quite a bit, since they are entirely based on Volvo's press release.
The only problem is that I'm not 100 % sure that it is a configuration of the B12M. If anybody could find if the VIN code is "R9", it would fully confirm it. Bergenga (talk) 15:33, 12 September 2020 (UTC)