Ikarus Bus
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| Private company | |
| Industry | Bus manufacturing |
| Founded | 1895 |
| Headquarters | Budapest, Hungary |
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Key people
|
Gábor Széles — Chairman |
| Products | Buses |
| Website | www |
Ikarus is a bus manufacturer based in Budapest, Hungary. It was established in 1895 as Uhri Imre Kovács- és Kocsigyártó Üzeme (roughly: "Imre Uhri's Blacksmith Workshop and Coach Factory").
By 1913, the company focused mainly on constructing cars and due to increased sales during World War I it made great profits. In 1927, Ikarus had won an international tender and it was this year that large scale production could begin by delivering 60 shuttle buses. Following the Wall Street Crash the company became bankrupt as it did not receive any significant orders and it had to be closed down. In 1935 the company had resumed production and was fully functioning during World War II. On 23 February 1949, Ikarus was officially established when it merged with airplane manufacturer Ikarus Gép és Fémgyár Rt.
In 1955 and 1956 with the new front engine models (Ikarus 620, 630 and 31) the company's foreign sales were boosted and apart from Eastern-European countries, the People's Republic of China, Burma and Egypt started using them in several of their cities. By 1962, Ikarus delivered 8,000 buses abroad and in 1970 it won second place at an expo in Monaco showing its prominence in Europe. In 1971, over 100,000 buses were manufactured and sales increased year-by-year. By 1973, Ikarus became the world's fourth largest manufacturer, but lacking raw materials, orders were not delivered in time on several occasions. Until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic was one of the most important trading partners of Ikarus, but when Germany was re-unified sales fell to about 10%.
Ikarus provided body shells (without doors, windows, seats, engine) for Orion Bus Industries contracts to supply two of Canada's transit systems, the Toronto and Ottawa with articulated buses in late 1986–87. The Orion Ikarus buses were put on the fast track for retirement by the TTC due to structural corrosion problems. These problems were blamed on poor spot welds made during the manufacture of the bus.
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Wikipedia