Danish Automobile Building (DAB) (Danish: Dansk Automobil Byggeri A/S) was a Danish bus manufacturer based in

Silkeborg Silkeborg () is a Denmark, Danish town with a population of 52,571 (1 January 2025).Audi Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. A subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. The origins of the compa ...

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, and Büssing-NAG. DAB became a mainstream bus builder through the World Wars. In 1953 DAB started collaborating with

Leyland Motors Leyland Motors Limited (later known as the Leyland Motor Corporation) was an English vehicle manufacturer of lorries, buses and trolleybuses. The company diversified into car manufacturing with its acquisitions of Triumph and Rover in 1960 a ...

of Great Britain and as a result DAB used Leyland components for many of its buses, commonly building bodies on Leyland chassis, although they still bodied buses on different chassis as needs arose. In the 1970s Leyland bought a majority stake in DAB and renamed the factory Leyland-DAB, DAB also built buses on Leyland underframes, some for import into the UK, such as the Leyland-DAB Lion and Guy Arab. From 1964, DAB built a standardized bus, mainly for

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

. These buses fell into 7 distinct models and went on to be sold to other private companies in Denmark until the model VII well into the 1990s. DAB's buses were alloy-bodied and of modular construction. In the 1980s DAB also started making articulated buses, producing the Leyland-DAB articulated bus. This saw domestic usage, and was the first articulated bus in the United Kingdom, albeit with limited repeat orders. With the decline of Leyland, the Leyland DAB division was included in the 1987 sale of Leyland Bus to

Volvo The Volvo Group (; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distribution and sale of truck ...

. In 1990 DAB went on to be a participant in the

United Bus United Bus was a European bus and coach manufacturing group created by the merger of Dutch manufacturers DAF Bus and Bova in November 1989. The merger was made in response to a joint review of the future European bus and coach industry. DAF too ...

venture, with DAF Bus, Bova, Den Oudsten and Optare, with United Bus holding 70% of the shares of DAB. With the failure of the United venture, DAB became a wholly Danish owned factory again. In the 1990s with the move to

low-floor bus A low-floor bus is a bus or trolleybus that has no steps between the ground and the floor of the bus at one or more entrances, and low floor for part or all of the passenger cabin. A bus with a partial low floor may also be referred to as a l ...

es, DAB developed a new concept, the Travelator, later sold as the Servicebus. This was a full low floor short bus with the doors being placed behind the front wheels,www.aalborgbus.dk
Image of a DAB 'service bus' in a similar concept to the later Optare Solo. Unusually the rear wheels could be specified as steering single wheels. The model was popular, gaining several export orders.

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 ...

took over the factory in 1995, the DAB models were initially continued. In 1997 DAB Silkeborg was renamed Scania A/B, Silkeborg. In 1999 production of in house DAB's by now more conventional low floor full length buses was discontinued, in favour of becoming one of two sites building Scania's own models, the OmniLink and OmniCity, the other site being

Katrineholm Katrineholm (pronunciation: or ) is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Katrineholm Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 24,271 inhabitants in 2018. It is located in the inland of Södermanland and is the third largest ur ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. Due to low order levels, Scania sold the factory to Vest Busscar of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

in 2002, ending the DAB name.

References

busexplorer.com
Chapter 18: Danish Bus Builders, 4.1. DAB {{Authority control Bus manufacturers of Denmark Defunct companies of Denmark Danish companies established in 1912