Sustainable mobility EvoBus

susTaInaBLE moBILITy

EvoBus GmbH, the largest European subsidiary of Daimler AG, is a leading full-line supplier to the European bus and coach market as well as a growing global player. To ensure the European plants are fit for the future, the company has decided on a major investment programme to further enhance production efficiency. Romana Moares reports.

With its numerous production facilities and service shops, EvoBus is represented throughout Europe with more than 8000 employees. As part of the Daimler Buses business area, EvoBus GmbH is integrated into the group’s global bus activities. The product portfolio includes city buses, interurban buses and travel coaches, delivered either as a complete bus or a chassis.

Daimler Buses is the world’s biggest and most profitable bus manufacturer. The company has a global reach, supported by a network of production plants and service centres. With its comprehensive offering of the Mercedes-Benz, Setra and BharatBenz brands, Daimler Buses covers the full scope of requirements in the field of bus transportation, with maximum focus on safety, efficiency and ecological sustainability. Moreover, with its OMNIplus and BusStore brands, the company provides a worldwide service network and full

coverage service line, including used buses. In the first half of 2017, the Daimler Buses Group sold almost 13,000 buses and chassis worldwide, confirming its solid position in Europe, Brazil, Turkey, Argentina and Mexico.

EvoBus Czech Republic has been operating in the Czech market since 1998. In 2001, a new production plant was commissioned, soon to be progressively expanded, followed in 2006 by a new service and sales centre in Prague, built in a green field and completed in just six months. In 2012 Evobus opened a new modern production hall in Holýšov, extending the production area to about 40,000m2 .

The manufacturing plant in Holýšov is part of the European EvoBus production network. The factory produces segments of body shell and components for urban low-floor buses, intercity buses of the Mercedes-Benz brand and all Setra buses and coaches, supplied to its sister companies in Germany. Although the main market for the final products remains Europe, they are shipped to customers around the world.

Fit for the future

The production plants of EvoBus in Mannheim and Neu-Ulm in Germany and Holýšov in the Czech Republic have been successfully collaborating for many years. However, their structures and distribution of tasks have evolved over time and are no longer appropriate for modern production processes.

In order to ensure that its plants in Europe continue to be fit for the future, the company’s management and works council has agreed on a future-oriented package for efficiency enhancements in production. In the coming years, approximately €340 million will be invested, of which €140 million will be spent on the European plants to facilitate optimised structures and more efficient processes.

In the future, each European plant will focus on several key competences with simplified processes and shortened supply routes: the Mannheim plant will produce the first series of battery-electric buses, as a competence centre for city buses. The competence centre for touring coaches in Neu-Ulm will continue to work intensively on safety and assistance systems, including those for autonomous driving. And the Czech plant in Holýšov will take on the production of complete bodies-in-white of the touring coaches as well as carrying on supplying components for the bodies-inwhite of the city buses.

As a result of the planned changes aimed at increasing the scope of competence of each plant, the body shop in Holýšov will be significantly expanded. The premises will increase by more than 130,000m2 to a total of 234,000m2. A series of new halls will be built to house the production of complete bodies-in-white for the touring coaches that will be made within a new workflow layout to support lean production and optimum material flows.

Strategic commitment

The existing halls for cladding assembly and chassis spraying will also be reconstructed, and a new administrative building will be added, including the supporting infrastructure. The investment will

also cover the equipment for a new welding shop as well as new technologies for the cataphoresis coating process, the most modern and environmentally friendly equipment in Europe, and a new, highvalue adding process for the Holýšov plant.

The production plant will supply approximately 3000 segments of the Citaro city bus bodyworks, to be assembled in Mannheim. Production of bodies-in-white will also increase and may reach up to 3000 units per year. The first complete bodyworks are planned to leave the production lines in 2019. Gradually, different types of buses will be added, with the last model included in 2021. The investment is expected to create 400 new jobs.

The strategic decision to expand the facility is a major commitment to the future, significantly increasing the importance and position of the Holýšov plant as a separate competence centre for the bodies-in-white throughout the Daimler Group’s production network. Through this extensive investment in its production base, Daimler Buses has confirmed its commitment to systematically continuing to shape the future of mobility. n