Ikarus Bus

Ikarus Bus

Ikarus
Type	Private company
Industry	Bus manufacturing
Founded	1895
Headquarters	Budapest, Hungary
Key people	Gábor Széles — Chairman
Products	Buses

Ikarus 415.14B bus in Bielsko-Biała, Poland.

File:Ikarus 31, front, 2.jpg

A restored Ikarus 31 (1959) in Miskolc.

Ikarus is a bus manufacturer based in Budapest, Hungary. It was established in 1895 as Uhri Imre Kovács- és Kocsigyártó Üzeme (roughly: "Imre Uhri's Blacksmith Workshop and Coach Factory").

History

By 1913, the company focused mainly on constructing cars and due to increased sales during World War I it made great profits. In 1927, Ikarus had won an international tender and it was this year that large scale production could begin by delivering 60 shuttle buses. Following the Wall Street Crash the company became bankrupt as it did not receive any significant orders and it had to be closed down. In 1935 the company had resumed production and was fully functioning during World War II. On 23 February 1949, Ikarus was officially established when it merged with airplane manufacturer Ikarus Gép és Fémgyár Rt.

In 1955 and 1956 with the new front engine models (Ikarus 620, 630 and 31) the company's foreign sales were boosted and apart from Eastern-European countries, China, Burma and Egypt started using them in several of their cities. By 1962, Ikarus delivered 8,000 buses abroad and in 1970 it won second place at an expo in Monaco showing its prominence in Europe. In 1971, over 100,000 buses were manufactured and sales increased year-by-year. By 1973, Ikarus became the world's fourth largest manufacturer, but lacking raw materials, orders were not delivered in time on several occasions. Until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic was one of the most important trading partners of Ikarus, but when Germany was re-unified sales fell to about 10%.

Ikarus provided body shells (without doors, windows, seats, engine) for Orion Bus Industries contracts to supply Toronto and Ottawa transit systems with articulated buses in late 1986–87. The Orion Ikarus buses were put on the fast track for retirement by the TTC due to structural corrosion problems. These problems were blamed on poor spot welds made during the manufacture of the bus.

From 1999, the company was owned by Irisbus, a French-Italian investing group. In 2006, Irisbus sold Ikarus Bus to Hungary's Műszertechnika group for the full asking price. Műszertechnika signed a contract back in December to acquire 100% of the company, which was established back in 1999 as a 75:25 joint venture between Renault-Iveco and Hungarian Industrialist Gábor Széles for Ikarus. In 2002, Ikarus placed the Natural Gas (CNG) 18 meter articulated bus in Colombia, which is currently in operation in Transmilenio Rapid Bus Mass Transit System in the Capital City of Bogota. The company has come out in 2007 with a new low-floor model which they plan to produce in Hungary (200–400 per year), Russia (1,000–2,000 per year) and China (10,000 per year).

In 2010 a new Ikarus V187 and other standard and articulated models were announced to the press and publicly tested on BKV lines

As of 2010, a second bus factory is planned to be built in the United States, with new headquarters in Los Angeles. A third bus factory is also planned in Eskişehir, Turkey.

In 2014 the Hungarian city of Szeged started operating new Ikarus-Skoda trolley busses. The busses are produced in Székesfehérvár, the engines in the Czech republic.

Models

Model	Engine	Type	Length	Notes	Image
30	front				x100px
31	front		8.5 m		100px
55	rear	coach	11.4 m		100px
60	front		9.4 m
66	rear	city/suburban	11.4 m		100px
180	mid	articulated city	16.5 m	extended version of the Ikarus 556	100px
190	rear		11 m	like West German standard; 1973–83
194	mid	city/suburban		on Volvo B10M chassis
196	mid	city/suburban		on Volvo B10M chassis
196.02	mid	articulated	18 m	on Volvo chassis
196.03	rear	articulated		on Scania chassis, 1984
208	rear	suburban	8.5 m
210	rear	coach
210	rear	suburban
211	rear			midi bus/coach	100px
212	rear			midi bus/coach
216	rear			midi bus/coach
220	rear	suburban	9.5 m	no series production
230	rear	coach
240	rear	city/suburban
242	rear	city/suburban	11 m
246	rear	city/suburban
250	rear	coach	12 m	produced in large numbers	100px
252	rear	coach	11 m		100px
255	rear	interurban	11 m		100px
256	rear	coach	11 m		100px
260	mid	city	11 m
260T	mid	trolleybus	11 m	only 2 produced (Budapest, Weimar)	100px
261	mid	city	11 m	Right-Hand Drive
263	mid	city	12 m	Upgraded, 12 m version of model 260	100px
266	rear	city/suburban	11 m		100px
280	mid	articulated	16.5 m		100px
280E		articulated trolleybus			100px
280T	mid	articulated trolleybus			100px
281	mid	articulated	16.5 m	Right-Hand Drive
282	mid	articulated	18 m
283	mid	articulated	18 m		100px
284	rear	articulated	17.9 m
286	mid	articulated	18.2 m	2.59 m wide for USA; see Crown-Ikarus 286
290	front	airport	14 m
293	mid	double articulated	22.6m	prototype
303	rear	coach	8.7 m	only 9 prototypes built
311	front		8.5 m	1957–72
380NE	rear	coach	12 m	only 1 prototype built
410NE	rear	city	11.4 m	only prototypes built
440NE	rear	city	11 m	only 1 prototype built
553	front	minibus			100px
556	mid	city	10.9 m		100px
620	front	city	9.4 m
630	front	interurban	9.4 m		100px
695	mid	articulated	17.9 m	"PALT" apron bus

Modern types

Model	Type	Length	Notes	Image
405	city bus	7 m		100px
411	low-floor city bus	11 m		100px
412	low-floor city bus	11.9 m		100px
412T	trolleybus			100px
415	city bus	11.4 m		100px
415T	trolleybus			100px
417	low-floor articulated city bus	17.6 m	only 30 ever produced	100px
435	articulated city bus	17.8 m		100px
438	articulated bus		only 1 prototype built
480	city bus	12 m	Body built on DAF SB220 chassis	100px
481	low-floor city bus	12 m	Body built on DAF SB220LF chassis	100px
489	low-floor city bus	12 m	Polaris	100px
EAG E91	mini city bus	7.8 m		100px
EAG E92	city bus	9 m	only 1 prototype built
EAG E94	urban bus 12 m			100px
EAG E94G	articulated urban/suburban bus	18 m	only a few built
EAG E95	interurban bus	12. m		100px
EAG E97	highdecker coach	12.0 m
EAG E98	coach	12.0 m
EAG E99	double-deck coach	12.m
E127 / 127E	low-floor suburban bus	12.725 m		100px
E134 / 134E	low-floor suburban bus	13.4 m
V134 / 134V	low floor city bus	13.4 m
V187 / 187V	low-floor articulated city bus	18.75 m	pre-production	100px

See also

• Crown-Ikarus 286
• Orion Bus Industries
• North American Bus Industries

External links

• Article about "Ikarus Bus and Coaches" from busexplorer website
• Polish page about Ikarus and Man buses
• Hungarian website featuring many Ikarus buses
• Ikarus in Czech Republic (in Czech)
• Technical description of Ikarus buses (in Ukrain)
• Ikarus Lux i.e. 55-14, Timeless Buses, Estonia and same model in commons