BREDAMENARINIBUS TO BE SOLD
According to press reports, Italian aerospace and defence group, Finmeccanica, is to sell its bus building subsidiary, BredaMenarinibus, next year. The company produces the Vivacity, Avancity, Lander intercity coach, Zeus electric minibus and the M240 EI hybrid. Turkish commercial vehicle builder, Karsan, which is now only building light- and nedium-weight vehicles, has been named as the possible new owner of the business.
Karsan is an interesting company which has been building sturdy minibuses for many years. It already has an association with BredaMenarinibus of Italy and is currently assembling 60 full size single deck buses for Rome. During a recent exhibition in Istanbul, Karsan exhinited the all-electric Zeus low floor microbus, a Vivacity midibus and a full size Avancity with a Mercedes-Benz CNG engine.
