It's straight to the point here

‘We believe that InnoTrans is one of the best bus exhibition areas in Europe. We take part in many trade fairs all over the world. Europe is our main market, but we are also active in North America and Japan. A unique feature of InnoTrans is the dedicated bus display area in the Sommergarten. Usually, lorries, heavy transport vehicles and other public transport vehicles are mixed with the bus displays, but here it's to the point. All the visitors come and ask real questions about the buses. That's why it's very important for us to be here,’ said Nurdan Derman, responsible for Marketing & Communications at KARASAN AUTOMOTIVE. This was the second InnoTrans for the Turkish bus manufacturer, which this year presented the e-ATAK, the first autonomous bus.

‘It's really nice to be able to see vehicles outside and go for a ride. That's a plus for InnoTrans,’ emphasises Patrick Oosterveld, Sales Director at Dutch bus manufacturer Ebusco. ‘You can get a feel for electric here. Normally, when I start a vehicle and switch it to ‘D’, it starts running, but that's not the case with an electric vehicle. It's difficult for a lot of people and here you can really test how smooth it is, how quickly the vehicle accelerates.’ Ebusco was represented in the bus display with the all-electric Ebus-co 3.0 with a body made of composite materials. Oosterveld emphasised that experts from municipal utilities, who mostly operate rail and bus systems, showed great interest in the Ebusco innovation.

Zoltán Sipos, CEO of the traditional Hungarian manufacturer Ikarus, which has been exhibiting at InnoTrans for the first time, was positively impressed by the number of visitors and the favourable conditions: ‘InnoTrans is very good for the expansion of the Ikarus brand, so we have set our goal and we will achieve it. Another contributing factor was the visit by the German Federal Minister for Digital Affairs and Transport, Dr Volker Wissing, of which Sipos is very proud: ‘We are a European manufacturer and we are part of this industry.’ For the bus display area, Ikarus had brought along two electric buses, the latest V4 version of the 12-metre city bus, the Ikarus 120e, and the Ikarus Midi bus, an 8-metre electric bus.

A total of eight bus manufacturers with different vehicle types were represented in the bus display, among them K-Bus and NesoBus. For the first time, the Chinese company BYD was also present with three electric buses, the BYD B12, BYD B13 and BYD B18. The special features of the BYD B12 are its fast and flexible charging solution and its long range of up to 600 kilometres.

Other manufacturers also had booths in the exhibition halls, including Bozankaya, CAF and Daimler Buses.