Volvo Buses, with subsidiary Sunwin Bus, has signed a framework agreement for 1,500 buses with bus operator Bashi Group in Shanghai, China.
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The agreement is valued at approximately SEK 1.3 billion and the buses will be delivered up to the opening of the World Expo in Shanghai in May next year.
The City of Shanghai is making major investments in modernising and streamlining its public transport prior to the World Expo, which will open on May 1, 2010. The theme for the fair is “Better City, Better Life”.
“An increase and modernisation of the bus traffic is an important part of the venture,” says Lars Blom, Head of Volvo Buses’ operations in China. “It involves raising the standard of the bus fleet by purchasing more Volvo buses and a strong investment in environmentally friendly buses from our subsidiary Sunwin Bus, a 50-50 joint venture between Volvo Buses and Shanghai Automotive Industry Co.”
Of the framework agreement’s 1,500 buses, about half will be Volvo buses, models Volvo B7RLE and Volvo B6R, and the remainder of the Sunwin brand. The Sunwin buses include normal diesel buses as well as hybrid buses, electric buses that are charged at night and buses equipped with super capacitors that are charged at bus stops when passengers alight and board the buses.
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By GlobalDataThe framework agreement implies that the Bashi Group will make suborders each month. To date, the company has called for about 300 of the buses and the aim is that all 1,500 buses will be ordered and delivered prior to the commencement of the World Expo.
“It is encouraging that customers in Shanghai are so satisfied with the quality supplied by Volvo Buses and Sunwin Bus that they return to us with new orders,” says Lars Blom. “We are also hoping for additional bus orders in the venture now in progress in Shanghai.”
Components for Volvo buses’ chassis are packed in the plant in Borås and dispatched to the plant in Shanghai, where the chassis are mounted and the buses assembled. The same plant also manufactures the local Sunwin buses.
