EvoBus, manufacturer of Mercedes-Benz and Setra buses, celebrates 10 years in the Czech Republic

7 Sep. 2009 | CzechInvest | Holýšov was Daimlers first manufacturing investment in central and eastern Europe.

EvoBus, which within the Daimler concern manufactures buses under the Mercedes-Benz and Setra brands, is celebrating its tenth year in operation in the Czech Republic. In Holýšov, in the Plzen region, the company manufactures bodies, undercarriages, side panels and roof components for all Daimler buses. The company employs more than 500 people, who annually produce over 8,000 complete structural segments of bus bodies.

“The plant in Holýšov was the very first investment by EvoBus and Daimler in Central and Eastern Europe,” says Reiner Springmeier, manager of the EvoBus Bohemia plant in Holýšov. “The main reason for the investment was the abundance of very high-quality and highly skilled workers in the region, which has a long tradition of manufacturing mass-transit vehicles. Other important factors were the facility’s proximity to its sister plants in Mannheim and Ulm and the favourable transport connection of the D5 motorway.”

“Besides production of components for buses, Daimler is also investing intensively in research and development in the Czech Republic. Its subsidiary Mbtech (Mercedes-Benz technology), has its own development and prototyping centre in Plzen as well as operations in Prague and Mladá Boleslav. The possibility of close proximity of investment in development to final production is very promising,” explains Alexandra Rudyšarová, acting CEO of CzechInvest.

After launching production in Holýšov in 2000, the company manufactured roughly 2,000 bus bodies annually; last year the total was 8,000. The company is intensively investing in new technologies, environmental protection and in making production more efficient. In addition, it is using the Japanese Kaizen system of continual improvement and a manufacturing system that is standard for all Daimler manufacturing plants around the world. “For example, due to cost optimization and introduction of the new system, in 2003 we replaced all original loading gates in the plant for new ones, which open and close significantly faster, resulting in substantially lower heat loss, and thus we save energy,” adds Reiner Springmeier.

“But there are more improvements, both large and small. Heating in the plant is controlled by special software so that areas are heated only when it is truly necessary and we use surplus heat from production. For example, we preheat acetylene cylinders, in which up to twenty percent of the gas would normally remain because of low temperatures; now we can use it. Not only does this lower gas costs, but it also enables us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions because in winter we transport one-fifth less gas,” says Reiner Springmeier.

The plant in Holýšov is dedicated primarily to buses intended for municipal transport. According to its manager, the company has thus largely avoided a decline in orders, unlike manufactures of long-haul buses, which have been affected by the global economic crisis over the past year. “The plant in Holýšov is working perfectly. We truly have a good outlook for the future, as we still have abundant capacity for further expansion of production,” Reiner Springmeier concludes.

More about EvoBus Bohemia

EvoBus Bohemia is responsible for sales and service of Mercedes-Benz and Setra buses in the Czech Republic. At its manufacturing plant in Holýšov, in the Plzen region, the company also manufactures undercarriages and bodies for nearly every type of Mercedes-Benz and Setra buses. EvoBus Bohemia employs more than 500 people in the Czech Republic.