Iveco opens new bus factory in Italy
Iveco Group has opened its plant in Foggia, Italy, which will manufacture battery and fuel cell buses, among other products. The inauguration of the new plant comes eight months after the foundation stone was laid.
Iveco announced less than a year ago that it wanted to manufacture buses in Italy again. Now, they can build up to 1,000 buses in Foggia per year. Ivseco mentions the BEV and hydrogen buses but also retained the capacity combustion engine models. Iveco has not revealed how high the share of electric buses will be in today’s news. What is clear is that the chassis and frames of the vehicles will not be made in southern Italy but sourced from other European plants.
Iveco stopped producing buses in Italy in 2011. At that time, the manufacturer still belonged to Fiat Industrial, which later merged with the Italian-American company CNH Industrial. However, Iveco parted ways with the former parent company in January 2022.
However, the manufacturer does not yet specify which models are to be assembled in Foggia, even in the communication on the commissioning of the plant. Among other things, Iveco currently has the twelve-metre E-Way solo bus with battery-electric drive in its range and an electric city and intercity bus called Iveco Bus Crossway LE Electric. Since July 2022, it has been certain that the fuel cell systems for the future hydrogen buses will be sourced from the Hyundai subsidiary HTWO.
Iveco has invested around 40 million euros in the new bus plant, but part of this sum was covered by funds from the PNRR, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. In Foggia, the Iveco Group already operates FPT Industrial plant for the production of industrial engines, which employs 1,600 people – making Iveco one of the largest industrial employers in Puglia.
“The new IVECO BUS plant in Foggia represents an important investment for Iveco Group, which is fully in line with our strategy to maintain and strengthen our presence in Italy at centres of excellence like our historic engine plant in Foggia,” said Gerrit Marx, CEO of the Iveco Group. “It is, therefore, with pride and pleasure that today we concretely mark the return of our bus production to Italy. In this way, we will provide the Italian public transport sector with our most technologically advanced and environmentally sustainable vehicles.”
1 Comment