Volvo Buses has won an order for 100 B7R bus chassis for South Africa, a breakthrough for Volvo Buses on the South African market.
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The customer is Remant/Alton Land Transport (PTY) Ltd., and the buses will be used for public transport services in and around Durban on the east coast of South Africa.
The chassis are packaged as CKD (Completely Knocked Down) kits by Volvo Buses in Boras and are being built locally at the company’s assembly plant in Gaborone, Botswana. The South African coachbuilder Busaf is adding the body in Johannesburg.
“This order represents a breakthrough, not just for the Volvo B7R, which was introduced to the market in 2001, but for rear-engined buses in South Africa as a whole,” said Andreas Wahlgren, sales manager for Africa and Iran at Volvo Buses. “So far the market has been totally dominated by front-engined buses. The fact that South African drivers and other operators will now be seeing a lot of rear-engined buses about from an important operator will be significant for the continued development of sales of the B7R in the country.”
Head of Volvo Buses in South Africa, Sam Mansing, sees a strong development for Volvo in South Africa. “Buses are a very important means of transport in South Africa. At the same time there is pressure for a general change in the bus fleet which, together with an expansive development of society, is creating big opportunities”, he said.
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By GlobalDataThe total market for imported brands in South Africa is approximately 1,000 bus chassis per year. Volvo has a market share of approximately 20% and is consequently the third largest imported brand in the market.
