2023-09 SUSTAINABLE BUS

OUTLOOKS
If someone had asked us a couple of
years ago if there was still room for
bodybuilders, we probably would
have answered no. But after the recent
statements from various manufacturers
who intend to downsize or even cease
the production of complete buses, are we
still of this opinion?
Undoubtedly, the ‘electric race’ has shuffled
the cards of a sector that has remained
too tied to old entrepreneurial logics and
dotted with large groups that are economically
uncompetitive and poorly responsive
to market developments. The pandemic
then acted as a catalyst for a process
that was in any case changing the collective
way of moving, especially in the tourism
sector. Furthermore, the appearance of
many new (sometimes improvised) players
is redistributing market shares in the
face of figures that, overall, remain more
or less constant. Finally, an increasing
share has been taken by Chinese groups,
which have never been so present in the
old continent, with a technology already
widely tested and much lower prices. And
what about Turkish brands? Their current
political and economic situation certainly
doesn’t help them, but regardless of this,
they continue to sell several hundred pieces
a year in Europe.
So, is this a sector destined to change?
Yes, and quite a bit. But let’s see in detail
what is happening today and try to understand
where we are going.
res, except for some important contracts
in northern Europe. This maneuver will
logically lead to a further lower income,
which is estimated at around one billion
euros, but from 2025 it will make it possible
to restore competitiveness to one
of the largest automotive groups on our
continent. Production will continue in
Sweden for all the technological parts, as
well as for the chassis to be set up, just as
assistance will be ensured for the entire
fleet already on the road.
Looking at the future, Volvo will strengthen
its partnership with the Egyptian
manufacturer MCV, with which it had
already supplied electric buses in the
United Kingdom, by having the 12- and
18-meter electric 7900 manufactured and
by developing a new project for the intercity
bus. In the field of touring coaches,
Volvo confirmed its collaboration with
coachbuilders, starting with Sunsundegui,
for increasingly customized vehicles that
conform to customer specifications.
SCANIA
idea, which was repeatedly announced
and never really implemented, of developing
platforms common to MAN within
the Traton group was definitely shelved.
On the other hand, the will remains to
follow more paths in alternative tractions
(electric, hybrid, hydrogen, gaseous and
liquid methane) but leaving the task of
‘dressing’ the bus to others, so as to better
accommodate the markets and distribute
the investment costs.
MAN
The ‘electric race’ has
shuffled the cards of a
sector that has remained
too tied to old entrepreneurial
logics and dotted
with large groups that
are economically uncompetitive
and poorly
responsive to market
developments.
HOW IS THE BUS INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPE CHANGING IN EUROPE?
RACE TO PROFITS
First Volvo, then Scania announced radical changes of
business model that seems to be destined to set an
example. Iveco Bus and Daimler Buses have bucked the
trend. Body builders are experiencing a new golden age
VOLVO
I
n March 2023, the Swedish manufacturer,
one of the first to believe in electric
traction, announced its intention to cease
the production of complete buses in
Europe at the end of the first quarter of
2024, effectively closing the Polish plant
in Wroclaw. The plant will then pass to
Vargas Holding, which will reinstate part
of the 1,500 employees starting from the
end of this year. This decision comes after
years of losses, during which Volvo has
never achieved significant market sha-
Just over a year after the presentation
of the new Interlink, Scania has stated
its intention to stop the production of all
its complete buses, including the Citywide,
foreseeing the drastic downsizing of
the Polish production site and the cutting
of over 800 employees (partly relocated).
The fifth European manufacturer of buses
over 8 tons comes from a three-year period
of constant decline in original vehicles
registered. This is quantifiable in a
minus 35 percent since 2019, compared
to a Scania bus turnover that for 90 percent
is made of vehicles built through
bodywork partnerships all over the world.
A painful but necessary choice, therefore,
to concentrate investments on engines,
chassis and technological parts, making
more and more use of those partners who
over the years have been able to make
the most of robust, reliable and known
everywhere mechanical groups, ensuring
their marketing and assistance. Thus, the
The Bavarian manufacturer has declared
its intention to reduce the production
capacity of the Polish plant in Starachowice,
which is currently the reference
for the entire urban range, in order to transfer
the entire construction process of
electric buses to it, moving all conventional
fuel buses (including methane) in the
recently expanded Turkish plant in Ankara.
All with a cut of about nine hundred
workers, half of whom will be immediately
relocated to the new truck production
unit near Warsaw. In reality, this decision
reduces the overall production capacity of
MAN and Neoplan branded buses, going
from over 7,000 units (although only a
small pre-pandemic share) to just over
5,000, two thirds of which reserved for
the Turkish factory. On the other hand,
the European market has fairly constant
figures and MAN shares fail to increase,
despite an almost completely new range.
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