DINA BACK AS BUS MANUFACTURER
After a restructuring period of more than six years, starting in 2001 with a strike and near-bankruptcy, Mexican producer Dina has begun earlier this year with the production of a new small citybus, followed recently with a line pf full-size buses. The company has invested $60 million upgrading its factory space.
The company has come to the market this year with two products. One is the HTQ-94F, a medium-sized bus that weighs in at 15 tons and nine meters in length and comes in city and suburban versions. The other is the HTQ-104R, a full-size 17-ton bus that is over 10 meters long and designed for urban use and with a full list of options.
The buses are based on Dina's HTQ concept, launched about ten years ago and developed with the help of several foreign companies, like BMW affiliate Design Works of California, for example.
The buses are being produced in a new plant, a 40,000-squaremeter complex outside the city of Sahagun, Hidalgo state, an hour's drive from Mexico City. For the moment it is producing one bus per day. Soon, however, the factory will come to a daily production of up to three buses. That scheme should be reached by the beginning of 2009, at which point Dina will start on its third stage, the design and production of long-distance motor coaches, or buses designed to travel long distances. By 2010 all of Dina's products will be on the market.
In the past Dina co-operated with Marcopolo, building Marcopolo Viaggio bodies on it’s own chassis and delivering them among others to US and Canadian customers. In the ‘nineties Dina had also a sales network in Africa and most of Latin-America.
Dina is now preparing a contract with the government of Mexico City to supply it with 1,000 buses for use in the public transportation grid. Also, the company is looking at possibilities in Nicaragua and Venezuela.
