VDL Bova was a luxury

coachbuilder A coachbuilder or body-maker is someone who manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles.Construction has always been a skilled trade requiring a relatively lightweight product with sufficient strength. The manufacture of necessarily ...

based in

Eindhoven Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,DAF Daf ( fa, دف) also known as Dâyere and Riq is a Middle Eastern (mainly Iranian) frame drum musical instrument, used in popular and classical music in South and Central Asia. It is also used in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Iran, Uzbe ...

engine, which was first introduced in the 1980s and is still in production as of 2018 as the VDL Futura. In 1878 Jacob D. Bots founded a timber business in

Valkenswaard Valkenswaard () is a municipality and a town in the southern Netherlands, in the Metropoolregio Eindhoven of the province of North Brabant. The municipality had a population of in and spans an area of of which is water. The name Valkenswaard ...

. When he died, he left the business to his eldest son Simon who first introduced the name Bova, which was derived from Bots

. In 1931 the company began building coaches, and in 1969 introduced the Benelux, a self-supporting integral coach. The company was purchased by

VDL Groep VDL Groep is an international industrial and manufacturing company established in 1953. From its head office in Eindhoven, Netherlands, VDL supervises its subsidiaries, which have a high level of autonomy and responsibility for results. The bus a ...

in 2003, who also owned the Berkhof,

Jonckheere Jonckheere was a Belgian motor coach and bus builder, founded in 1881 by Henri Jonckheere in Roeselare. History In 1881, Henri Jonckheere began to build horse-drawn carriages in the village of Beveren, near Roeselare in the province of West F ...

and

VDL Bus Chassis VDL Bus & Coach is a Netherlands based bus manufacturer. It is an amalgamation of several bus building companies within the VDL Groep. VDL Bus & Coach has manufacturing plants in Belgium and the Netherlands. By 2018 VDL Bus & Coach sold 500 elect ...

brands.VDL Groep koopt busbouwer Bova
''

NRC Handelsblad ''NRC'', previously called ''NRC Handelsblad'' (), is a daily morning newspaper published in the Netherlands by NRC Media. It is generally accepted as a newspaper of record in the Netherlands. History ''NRC Handelsblad'' was first published on 1 ...

'' 6 May 2003 (in Dutch) From 2010 the individual brands were discontinued and VDL Bova became part of

VDL Bus & Coach VDL Bus & Coach is a Netherlands based bus manufacturer. It is an amalgamation of several bus building companies within the VDL Groep. VDL Bus & Coach has manufacturing plants in Belgium and the Netherlands. By 2018 VDL Bus & Coach sold 500 elect ...

Products

Integral Buses and Coaches

* Benelux (coach/interurban, replaced by Europa) * Europa (coach, replaced by Futura) * Futura (coach/interurban, replaced by VDL Futura 2) * Magiq (coach, derivative of Futura, replaced by VDL Futura 2) * X-press (low-floor bus with rear engine, only 16 built in 1980)

Bus and Coach Chassis

* Calypso (coach, with Europa underframe and Duple bodywork)

Bus and Coach Bodywork

Initially Bova built bus bodywork on a variety of chassis, but switched to building integral vehicles in the early 1970s. After becoming part of VDL Groep some chassis/bodywork combinations of DAF/ Berkhof heritage were sold as complete vehicles under the VDL Bova name: * Lexio (interurban bus based on VDL SD400 chassis, replaced by

VDL Citea The VDL Citea is a city bus built by VDL Bus & Coach. It was released at the UITP Mobility and City Transport Exhibition 2007 in Helsinki. The series received a facelift in 2010 and further overhaul in 2020. The Citea is sold in three differen ...

) * Synergy (double-deck coach based on VDL SBR4000 chassis, rebadged from Berkhof Axial 100. Replaced by VDL Futura FDD2)

References

External links

*
Bova website
{{Automotive industry in the Netherlands VDL Groep Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1931 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 2010 2010 disestablishments in the Netherlands Dutch companies established in 1931