North America’s largest bus manufacturer, NFI Group, which also produces electric buses under the New Flyer brand, is taking over the Scottish bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis Limited for around 405 million US dollars. ADL is known above all for its double-decker buses and also cooperates with BYD on electric buses.

New Flyer Industries from Canada sees two main advantages in the takeover: On the one hand, ADL brings knowledge and experience in the field of double-decker buses to the company. ADL will apparently enhance NFI’s technical competencies on lightweight chassis and bodies, while NFI’s experience with electric vehicles should improve ADL’s international offer for electric vehicles.

ADL already offers electric buses in Europe, but they are built in cooperation with the Chinese BYD. The industry giant from China supplies the chassis and powertrain, while ADL manufactures the bodywork and the interior.

If future electric models by ADL are developed on the basis of NFI development, both manufacturers will hardly get in each other’s way with their other brands, which should all be retained. According to NFI, it operates around 74,000 buses in Canada and the USA, while ADL has 31,000 vehicles on the road under the Alexander Dennis and Plaxton brands in Europe, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, and Mexico. According to NFI, the takeover will create an independent global bus manufacturer that is the market leader in the UK, Hong Kong and North America –and would grow in the Asia Pacific, Latin America and Europe regions. Both companies emphasise that there is clear agreement on leadership strategy, market outlook and expectations regarding the growing importance of electric buses.

sustainable-bus.com, ngtnews.com, prnewswire.com