Hungary’s Ikarus Buses Coming Back

EghtesadOnline: Hungarian bus manufacturer Ikarus is set to re-enter Iran after years of absence.

News ID: ۷۷۹۴۷۰

27 September 2017

The Budapest-based company has signed an import agreement with the City Industries and Mines Development Group, a specialized holding company owned by City Bank of Iran, ILNA reported.

Ikarus has a long history of presence in Iran and several of its buses were popular in the country during 1990s, but the imposition of nuclear sanctions forced it discontinue ties to country.

According to the agreement, 1,000 buses will be imported within the next two years. Furthermore, Ikarus and the Iranian industrial group have signed a memorandum of understanding for joint production of buses in Iran and the Hungarian bus manufacturer is required to share expertise with the Iranian partner, Financial Tribune reported.

No further details have been provided by the two companies and it is not certain whether the buses will be produced in collaboration with other local companies  or the City Industrial Group and Ikarus will set up a new production plant.

In recent months and in line with government’s push to renovate the dilapidated public transport fleet, local auto companies have sold several new buses to municipalities and other state organizations.

Azhitechs, an Iranian commercial vehicle producer and the official representative of Belarus’s Maz Trucks, has a deal to deliver 400 CNG-powered city buses to Tehran and Tabriz municipalities. The firm will sell 200 units of Maz to each municipality by next March.

Karmania, a local carmaker and official representative of China’s BYD, is introducing an all-electric city bus in Iran for the first time. The buses are produced by BYD.

The electric vehicle is currently under tests to see if it can adjust to the environmental and traffic conditions in the big cities.