Viseon Bus GmbH was a German bus,

trolleybus A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...

and

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

manufacturer, based in Pilsting,

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, Germany.Webb, Mary (ed.) (2009). ''Jane's Urban Transport Systems 2009-2010'', p. 717. Coulsdon, Surrey (UK):

Jane's Information Group Janes is a global open-source intelligence company specialising in military, national security, aerospace and transport topics, whose name derives from British author Fred T. Jane. History Jane's Information Group was founded in 1898 by Fred T. ...

. . It was established in July 2008, and in April 2009 it took over the former Neoman bus and coach production facility of

MAN Truck & Bus MAN Truck & Bus SE (formerly MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG, ) is a German automotive manufacturer and the subsidiary of Traton, one of the leading international providers of commercial vehicles. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, MAN Truck & Bus produces v ...

in Pilsting and a workforce of 220 employees. That plant had been manufacturing vehicles under the

Neoplan Neoplan Bus GmbH is a German automotive company that manufactures buses, trolleybuses and coaches. It became a subsidiary of MAN Truck & Bus SE in 2001. History Early days The company was founded by (1903–1993) in Stuttgart in 19 ...

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

, owned by MAN since 2001. Because of financial difficulties, Viseon Bus ceased production in 2013 and was

liquidated Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end. The assets and property of the business are redistributed. When a firm has been liquidated, it is sometimes referred to as wound-up or dissolved, although di ...

in 2014. Viseon made buses for use in urban

public transport Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of whic ...

, use at

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

s, use as inter-city coaches and for other purposes. Coach models included double-deckers as well as single-deckers. In March 2010, the company secured a contract to supply 12

articulated An articulated vehicle is a vehicle which has a permanent or semi-permanent coupling in its construction. This coupling works as a large pivot joint, allowing it to bend and turn more sharply. There are many kinds, from heavy equipment to buse ...

trolleybuses for a new trolleybus system to be constructed to serve the campus of the new King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, in

Riyadh Riyadh is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the Riyadh Governorate. Located on the eastern bank of Wadi Hanifa, the current form of the metropolis largely emerged in th ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

.''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 292, July–August 2010, p. 93. National Trolleybus Association (UK). . Later reports indicated the vehicles were Viseon model LT20.''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 310, July–August 2013, p. 110. The first was demonstrated on the Solingen trolleybus system in June 2011, and the full series entered service in Riyadh in April 2013. Viseon also built two two-axle trolleybuses for the trolleybus system of Modena, Italy, in 2010. Modena had placed the order for these model N6216 vehicles in 2008, with Viseon's predecessor, Neoplan, under an option from an earlier contract, but they were actually built by Viseon Bus,''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 299, September–October 2011, p. 115. in 2009–10, and delivered in July 2010.''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 295, January–February 2011, p. 19. In December 2012, China Youngman Automobile Group Co. Ltd. (Youngman) acquired a 74.9-percent stake in Viseon,''Trolleybus Magazine'' No. 309, May–June 2013, p. 76. concluding implementation of an agreement signed on 1 August 2012. Since 1994, Youngman had had licensing agreements with Viseon's predecessor,

(owned by

MAN A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy. Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the f ...

after 2001), under which it was able to adapt Neoplan designs and build buses to those designs for the Chinese and Southeast Asian market. (At one time, the Chinese production was named Jinhua Neoplan Vehicle Co. Ltd., or Neoplan Jinhua, before simply taking the Youngman name.) This partnership carried over to Viseon when it was established in 2008 as a

spin-off Spin-off, Spin Off, Spin-Off, or Spinoff may refer to: Entertainment and media *Spinoff (media), a media work derived from an existing work *''The Spinoff'', a New Zealand current affairs magazine * ''Spin Off'' (Canadian game show), a 2013 Canad ...

of part of MAN's Neoplan-branded bus production. At the time of the 2012 agreement, Youngman was one of China's largest bus manufacturers, building more than 4,800 buses per year in past years. It was planned that development and construction of buses would continue at Viseon's factory in Pilsting, and envisaged that Youngman models would also be developed and built there for the European market. The company introduced a new double-deck

model in June 2012, a , three-axle model designated LDD13. However, because of financial difficulties, Viseon Bus filed for

insolvency In accounting, insolvency is the state of being unable to pay the debts, by a person or company ( debtor), at maturity; those in a state of insolvency are said to be ''insolvent''. There are two forms: cash-flow insolvency and balance-sheet i ...

in April 2013. Its more than 200 employees were terminated in June 2013, and the vacated factory complex in Pilsting was sold in May 2014. The Pilsting plant had been in operation for 40 years, since 1973, and at Neoplan's peak, the company had employed more than 500 workers there.

References

External links

Web archive of Viseon Bus website
(English version) {{European bus builders Companies based in Bavaria Defunct bus manufacturers Trolleybus manufacturers German companies established in 2008 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 2014 Bus manufacturers of Germany Electric vehicle manufacturers of Germany

See also

References

External links