De Simon Group S.p.A. is a

bus manufacturer Bus manufacturing, a sector of the automotive industry, manufactures buses and coaches. History Bus manufacturing had its earliest origins in carriage building. Other bus manufacturers had their origins in truck manufacturing. Historically, c ...

and

coachbuilder A coachbuilder manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles. The trade of producing coachwork began with bodies for horse-drawn vehicles. Today it includes custom automobiles, buses, Coach (bus), motor coaches, and passenger car (rai ...

based in

Osoppo Osoppo () is a (municipality) in the Regional decentralization entity of Udine in the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, located about northwest of Trieste and about northwest of Udine. Osoppo borders the following municipalities: Bu ...

Udine Udine ( ; ; ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in northeastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Carnic Alps. It is the capital of the Province of Udine, Regional decentralization entity ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

History

The company was founded in 1925 by Giovanni De Simon, who started assembling wooden-body buses for the local public transport. Later, under the management of his son Ilvo, the company introduced steel for interurban and touristic coaches, using

Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A., commonly known as simply Fiat ( , ; ), is an Italian automobile manufacturer. It became a part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in 2014 and, in 2021, became a subsidiary of Stellantis through its Italian division, Stellant ...

, OM,

Lancia Lancia Automobiles S.p.A. () is an Italian car manufacturer and a subsidiary of Stellantis Europe, which is the European subsidiary of Stellantis. The present legal entity of Lancia was formed in January 2007 when its corporate parent reorganise ...

Alfa Alfa may refer to: Businesses and organisations Broadcasting * Alfa Radio, a Macedonian radio station * XHFAJ-FM, a Mexico City radio station better known as Alfa 91.3 * Alfa TV (Cypriot TV channel), a premium television service available in ...

chassis. In the sixties they started assembling buses on Fiat truck-chassis and sold over a thousand units to the public transport companies in Italy. The

1976 Friuli earthquake The 1976 Friuli earthquake, also known in Italy as Terremoto del Friuli (''Friulian earthquake''), occurred on 6 May 1976, at 21:00:13 (20:00:13 UTC) with a moment magnitude of 6.5 and a maximum EMS intensity of X (''very destructive''). The shoc ...

, with its epicenter in Osoppo, ruined most of the plants in

Friuli-Venezia Giulia Friuli-Venezia Giulia () is one of the 20 regions of Italy and one of five autonomous regions with special statute. The regional capital is Trieste on the Gulf of Trieste, a bay of the Adriatic Sea. Friuli-Venezia Giulia has an area of and a ...

, including De Simon's. Ilvo with his sons Giovanni and Alvio managed to rebuild the plant in only two years' time. The new site covered 70,000 square meters and included two office buildings and a test track. In 1978, De Simon together with

Breda Costruzioni Ferroviarie Breda ( , , , ) is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name derived from ''brede Aa'' ('wide Aa' or 'broad Aa') and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. Br ...

formed a new consortium called Inbus, which in the 1980s achieved a 30% share of the national bus market. During this time, De Simon built a new construction plant in

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

, called IMEA, that would be the main supplier of the island for urban and interurban buses. During its ten years of existence the Inbus consortium produced about 6,000 buses, of which 30% were assembled by De Simon. After the disbanding of the consortium in 1990, De Simon continued producing buses in collaboration with

Iveco Iveco S.p.A., an acronym for Industrial Vehicles Corporation, is an Italian multinational transport vehicle manufacturing company with headquarters in Turin, Italy. It designs and builds light, medium, and heavy Commercial vehicle, commercial veh ...

and

Renault Renault S.A., commonly referred to as Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English), is a French Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company curr ...

, introducing for the first time in Italy the bodies built from stainless steel. Starting in 1993, De Simon focussed mainly on intercity buses built entirely from stainless steel, using chassis from European manufacturers

Scania Scania ( ), also known by its native name of Skåne (), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces () of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous w ...

and later

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to simply as Mercedes and occasionally as Benz, is a German automotive brand that was founded in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a subsidiary of the Mercedes-Benz Group, established in 2019) is based in Stuttgart, ...

. In the urban sector, De Simon held a franchise to sell in Italy the buses of the Belgian manufacturer

Van Hool Van Hool NV () was a Belgium, Belgian coachbuilder and manufacturer of buses, Coach (bus), coaches, trolleybuses, and Semi-trailer, trailers. Most of the buses and coaches were built entirely by Van Hool, with engines and axles sourced from C ...

, between 8 and 18 meters in length, and available even with a

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

-powered engine. Between 1996 and 2002, the Romanian bus manufacturer

Rocar Rocar (also T.V. or Autobuzul) was a van, light truck, bus and trolleybus manufacturer based in Bucharest, Romania. The firm also produced light offroad vehicles and later heavy road vehicles. During its existence, the company produced over 350,0 ...

and De Simon had a cooperation for the assembly of 400 urban buses as the models I410 and U 412. In the following five years, the company developed a new range of buses called Millemiglia, designed for interurban lines, between 10.8 and 14 meters in length. Such fleets were for use in the towns of

Apulia Apulia ( ), also known by its Italian language, Italian name Puglia (), is a Regions of Italy, region of Italy, located in the Southern Italy, southern peninsular section of the country, bordering the Adriatic Sea to the east, the Strait of Ot ...

and

Campania Campania is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy located in Southern Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian Peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islan ...

. Their line-up also included a touristic open-top bus called Millemiglia Zefiro. In 2006, De Simon Group established themselves as a

joint-stock company A joint-stock company (JSC) is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their shares (certificates of ownership). Shareho ...

mainly managing the supply of spare parts for bus bodies and repairs, maintenance, and conversion of bus bodies. In 2007, as an independent company, De Simon achieved a sales volume of 150 buses and a turnover of more than 20 million

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

s. In 2008 the company decided to convert the business to the sole sale of spare parts and the repair of bodywork.

Products

The current line-up of buses: *De Simon Millemiglia 12 HD *De Simon Millemiglia 10 HD *De Simon Millemiglia 10 Eav *De Simon Millemiglia Zefiro

References

External links

De Simon Millemiglia HD review by Bus & Pullman
{{Authority control Auto parts suppliers of Italy Bus manufacturers of Italy Coachbuilders of Italy Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1925 1925 establishments in Italy Italian brands