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BusTech Group is an Australian bus-building manufacturer with production facilities in
Burleigh Heads, Queensland Burleigh Heads is a suburb in the City of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. In the , Burleigh Heads had a population of 10,077 people. Geography Burleigh Head is a cape () jutting into the Coral Sea at the northern mouth of Tallebudgera Cre ...
, Edinburgh
Adelaide, South Australia Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...
and Burnie, Tasmania. BusTech Group produces fully built up integral route buses, school buses and double deck buses and also produces single deck bus bodies, largely built on European chassis from manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and Scania, predominantly under their VST model line. As of 2022, BusTech Group was actively delivering new buses into Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and the ACT. The company was originally established as Bustech in 1995 by the then owners of
Gold Coast, Queensland The Gold Coast is a coastal city in the state of Queensland, Australia, approximately south-southeast of the centre of the state capital Brisbane. With a population over 600,000, the Gold Coast is the sixth-largest city in Australia, the nati ...
bus operator,
Surfside Buslines Surfside Buslines was an Australian bus operator on the Gold Coast in Queensland. It operated 56 services under contract to the Government of Queensland under the TransLink banner. It also operates nine services in the adjoining Tweed Valley of ...
the Calabro family. Early production generally focused on producing low entry, route bus bodies with smaller numbers of school buses and charter/touring vehicles were also produced. Bustech produced its first integral bus in 2007, a midi-sized route bus with production subsequently expanding into full size route and school buses by 2008. An urban double deck bus began production in 2011 and Australia's first locally engineered and built electric bus was completed by Bustech in 2015. Bustech formed part of the
Transit Australia Group Transit Australia Group (TAG) was one of Australia's leading mass transit specialists headquartered on the Gold Coast in Queensland. The company operated Sunbus ( Sunbus Cairns, Sunbus Magnetic Island, Sunbus Rockhampton, Sunbus Sunshine Coas ...
from 2008 under Calabro family ownership, until the latter was dissolved in 2019 upon the sale of bus operations to AATS Group. Bustech formed a joint venture agreement with Precision Components, owned b
Fusion Capital
and began producing buses under the Precision Buses name in 2017. In addition,
Elphinstone Engineering Elphinstone Engineering is an Australian company which manufactures specialised trailers for the transport industry and equipment for weighing trucks, including on-board scales that weigh the load. It focuses particularly on support for forestry. ...
in Tasmania began assembling buses under agreement in 2017. Bustech and Precision Buses formalised a merger in 2019, with management of the two operations initially known as the Australian Bus Corporation. The company was rebranded and relaunched as BusTech Group in December 2020. In February 2021 it was announced that a factory is being planned near Newcastle, New South Wales to build electric buses for New South Wales operators.


History


Calabro family ownership

Bustech was founded by the proprietors of
Surfside Buslines Surfside Buslines was an Australian bus operator on the Gold Coast in Queensland. It operated 56 services under contract to the Government of Queensland under the TransLink banner. It also operates nine services in the adjoining Tweed Valley of ...
, Joe and Tony Calabro, on the Gold Coast in 1995. Buses were initially produced on Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and
Hino Hino may refer to: Places Estonia * Hino, Põlva County * Hino, Võru County ** Lake Hino Japan * Hino, Shiga * Hino, Tokyo * Hino, Tottori ** Hino District, Tottori ** Hino River Transportation * Hino Motors, a Japanese truck manufacturer o ...
chassis with the first such vehicle completed in 1998 from their original Ernest, Queensland factory. In late 2003, Bustech began production of the VST model. In October 2004 Bustech moved to a new factory in Calabro Way, West Burleigh. Bustech became part of the
Transit Australia Group Transit Australia Group (TAG) was one of Australia's leading mass transit specialists headquartered on the Gold Coast in Queensland. The company operated Sunbus ( Sunbus Cairns, Sunbus Magnetic Island, Sunbus Rockhampton, Sunbus Sunshine Coas ...
in 2008 as part of a restructuring of the Calabro operations. In the same year, the company launched its first integral bus the 10.5 metre MDi. This was followed by the 12.5 metre XDi, SDi school bus and in July 2011 by the 12.5 metre CDi double decker, the first double deck citybus built for Australian operation since 1973. In November 2009, Bustech completed its 1000th bus. In July 2015, in collaboration with
Swinburne University of Technology Swinburne University of Technology (often simply called Swinburne) is a public research university based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1908 as the Eastern Suburbs Technical College by George Swinburne to serve those without access ...
, the Automotive Cooperative Research Centre (AutoCRC) and the Malaysian Automotive Institute, Bustech unveiled its first electric bus to be designed, engineered and manufactured in Australia, known as the ZDi. Bustech has already signed a AUD$170 million contract to manufacture electric buses for the Malaysian government in late 2014. with the first electric prototype bus delivered to Malaysia in 2016 branded as the XDi-E. In 2016, through the
Transit Australia Group Transit Australia Group (TAG) was one of Australia's leading mass transit specialists headquartered on the Gold Coast in Queensland. The company operated Sunbus ( Sunbus Cairns, Sunbus Magnetic Island, Sunbus Rockhampton, Sunbus Sunshine Coas ...
, Bustech signed a deal with Dubai South to provide electric buses. One ZDi bus was exported to Dubai for evaluation in 2017.


Fusion Capital Holdings ownership

Bustech was not included in the April 2019 purchase of the
Transit Australia Group Transit Australia Group (TAG) was one of Australia's leading mass transit specialists headquartered on the Gold Coast in Queensland. The company operated Sunbus ( Sunbus Cairns, Sunbus Magnetic Island, Sunbus Rockhampton, Sunbus Sunshine Coas ...
by the AATS Group (now Kinetic Group). In September 2019, it was announced that Bustech will be merging with its joint venture partner Precision Buses, which is owned by Fusion Capital Holdings. Both organisations would have a combined strategic management and direction under a new holding company called Australian Bus Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fusion. However, each of them would retain their own brand identities and continue to operate in their own capacity at their respective facilities. In June 2020, Bustech formed a partnership wit
Ebusco
to produce the zero emission Ebusco 2.2 model and the next generation, carbon based Ebusco 3.0 model in Australia in a purpose built high tech facility. In August 2020, Bustech and Proterra announced a new collaboration to manufacture the all-electric ZDi 12.5m city bus utilizing Proterra’s battery technology platform. On 14 December 2020, it was announced that the group including Precision Buses and Elphinstone, was rebranded as the BusTech Group.


Products


Early bus bodies

Most of the early buses from 1998 to 2000 were built for the Calabro's operations
Surfside Buslines Surfside Buslines was an Australian bus operator on the Gold Coast in Queensland. It operated 56 services under contract to the Government of Queensland under the TransLink banner. It also operates nine services in the adjoining Tweed Valley of ...
and other operators such as Clark's Logan City Bus Service and Whitsunday Transit in Queensland and
Buslines Group The Buslines Group is an Australian bus operator in New South Wales and is the third largest private bus operator in New South Wales. History John A Gilbert Group The John A Gilbert group was founded in March 1926 by John A Gilbert as Reo Motor ...
, Oliveri's Metro-Link and King Brothers in New South Wales. Following the collapse of the
Clifford Corporation Clifford Corporation was a listed Australian company that purchased several bus manufacturing businesses in the mid-1990s before collapsing in November 1998. History In August 1995 Clifford Corporation purchased the Ansair Ansair was an Aust ...
, Bustech was successful in winning further orders from a variety of operators such as
Sunbus Sunbus was an Australian bus operator in the Australian state of Queensland. It operated in 5 regional areas across the state under contract to the Government of Queensland under the TransLink banner. As of 2022 Sunbus has changed its name as ...
and the Pulitano Group in Queensland and Connex, Forest Coachlines and Calabro family relation Busabout in New South Wales from 2000 to 2002.


VST

The VST model commenced production in 2003 on a variety of chassis with more than 1,500 vehicles produced. It is a low-floor city's body, available in single and dual door configurations. Various seating options are also available.


SBM/SBV

The SBM/SBV is a 12.5m school/charter bus body with a single door and the option for underfloor luggage bins. Commenced production in 2006 branded as the Graduate, they have been built on a variety of chassis including MAN 18.280 and 19.320, Mercedes-Benz OH1830L,
Scania K94IB The Scania 4-series low floor city bus and coach range was introduced by Scania in 1997 as a successor to the 3-series bus range. The 4-series bus range was first presented in September 1996, when the integral low-floor city bus OmniCity was ...
, and
Volvo B7R The Volvo B7R is a coach chassis available with a range of bodies. It is promoted as a rear engined lightweight coach chassis. It is primarily intended for tourist and long-distance duties. B7R is also manufactured in China, Brazil, Hungary, India ...
/
Volvo B8R The Volvo B8R is a 7.7-litre engined coach and intercity bus chassis manufactured by Volvo since 2013 for Euro VI markets. It was designed as a replacement for the B7R and the B9R. In 2017, Euro III and V versions were launched worldwide with ...
. The naming SBM stands for School Bus MAN/Mercedes-Benz whilst SBV stands for School Bus Volvo


Diesel Integral Buses


ZDi (Electric Integral Bus)

The ZDi is a 12.5m, 41-seater low-floor integral city bus, with full electric propulsion. The models produced between 2015 and 2022 were produced with ZF axles and Toshiba batteries. Three ZDi evaluation and test buses have been produced, with one exported for trialed in Dubai, and the remaining two built for operation in Adelaide, however remaining under test as at 2021. Only one of the Adelaide buses saw service, with the other never leaving the factory site. The ZDi model has been approved as a "Panel 3-approved Australian vehicle for NSW" by Transport for NSW.Electric bus maker BusTech plans NSW factory to meet state demand
The Driven 19 February 2021
Bustech E-Bus NSW 'Panel 3' Approved
Australian Bus & Coach 19 February 2021
Bus Specifications for Transport for NSW Bus Procurement Panel Number 3
Transport for NSW


References


External links

{{Australian bus manufacturers Bus manufacturers of Australia Manufacturing companies based on the Gold Coast, Queensland Australian companies established in 1998 Australian brands Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1998