For Force Motors, Traveller series has always been a bread and butter offering ever since they launched it. The Travellerserved variety of purposes and applications like school buses, ambulance, utility vans and many more. In its segment it enjoys almost 50% market share. But there are still many segments of bus market with higher seating capacities which are yet to be addressed by Force Motors. Thus to address one such vacant space in their portfolio, Force Motors has introduce their first bus in 21-30 seating capacity segment, the Force Traveller 26. As the name suggests it is a bus with seating capacity of 26 in normal configuration and that of 37 in school bus configuration.
It was quite surprising to see Force Motors to launch a commercial vehicle infront of the media in such a big event. But it had the purpose behind it, as Force wanted to highlight some new features packed in this bus which are first of its kind in its segment. As Force claims, this is the world largest van with monocoque construction. Usually buses of this size are built as body on chassis type configuration. The monocoque construction gives this bus many advantages over its competition like more rigidity, almost 1000 kgs reduction in weight and increased durability.
The Force Traveller 26 is equipped with 4-caliper, ventilated disc brakes on each wheel, which adds safety to this vehicle. In the future, this vehicle will get air suspension and optional ABS, probably on the luxury variant. Paint job of this bus is up to the mark because Cathode Electrode Deposition Dip process for primer application and metallic finished paint job has been used. These are some impressive features on the Traveller 26 which makes it stand out in amongst the competition.
The Traveller 26 has a 129 PS Common Rail engine producing 295 Nm of torque which is made under license from Daimler AG, Germany. Dual Mass Fly Wheel absorbs low end vibrations and ensures smooth ride even at different speeds. This is mated to 5-speed synchromesh gearbox with cable shifter. Force claims to offer best in class fuel efficiency, which is 15% more fuel efficient than competition. The NVH levels are also kept to a minimum. A short ride in the city gave us an idea about good comfort levels it has to offer. The Traveller 26 is offered in three variants 26+ D Std, 37+ D School Bus, and 26+ D Deluxe which are priced at 10.87 lakhs, 11.17 lakhs and 13.78 lakhs (ex-showroom, Delhi) respectively.
