Eberspächer increases thermal systems production for electric buses

Automotive supplier Eberspaecher has opened a new production plant in Przylesie, Poland. There, the company primarily manufactures thermal management systems for electric city buses and coaches.

Eberspaecher is already well-established in Poland. The company’s Bus & Coach division in Olawa has been producing vehicle heaters for all drive types for seven years. Part of the production there and 100 employees will now move to nearby Przylesie, where the relocated production, together with the start of series production of a new thermal management system for electric buses, justifies a new location from Eberspaecher’s point of view. Production in Przylesie covers 12,500 square metres and is due to start this month.

“The increasing demand for electric buses requires us to expand our capacities for bus air conditioning systems,” explains Jörg Steins, CEO of Eberspaecher Group. “With around 30 per cent more capacity compared to the previous site, we are ideally positioned for current and future e-mobility orders.” Over the next three to five years, the Przylesie plant is expected to grow to up to 150 employees.

In addition to production, the new site will also house areas such as production planning, order processing, purchasing and controlling. The 7R Park Przylesie industrial estate’s new building is only two kilometres from the A4/E40 motorway junction. Moreover, thanks to the integration of photovoltaics and a heating and cooling system based on heat pumps, the plant is set to operate with very low CO2 emissions.

Eberspaecher specifies that in addition to the lines relocated from Olawa, two new production lines will be built on which the AC138 EVO thermal management system will be built from January 2025. “The AC138 EVO with its patented reversal of the air circuit is our high-tech and market‑defining top product for electromobility,” says Oliver Wels, Executive Vice President of the Bus and Coach business unit. The heat pump developed especially for hybrid and battery-electric buses impresses with its low system complexity and high energy efficiency. The solution is being introduced with the climate-friendly CO2 refrigerant R744.

However, it is also clear that for Eberspaecher, as for many automotive suppliers, the drive revolution is a feat of strength with many unknowns. That became apparent at the beginning of the year when Eberspaecher sold its new plant in Bulgaria, which was intended for the production of high-voltage heaters, to the GG Group from Austria before it had even opened. The company cited lower demand than expected as the reason.

eberspaecher.com