De Simon

Last updated
De Simon Group S.p.A.
Type Joint-stock company
Industry Bus manufacturing
Founded1925, 2006 as S.p.A.
Headquarters Osoppo, Udine, Italy
Products Buses, Spare parts
Website http://www.desimon.it

De Simon Group S.p.A. is a bus manufacturer and coachbuilder based in Osoppo, Udine, Italy.

Contents

History

Inbus De Simon I330 touristic bus Inbus 4115.jpg
Inbus De Simon I330 touristic bus
Inbus U210 urban bus Inbus 1702.jpg
Inbus U210 urban bus
Inbus AID 280 FT articulated bus INBUS AID 280 FT.jpg
Inbus AID 280 FT articulated bus
Rocar De Simon trolleybus in Cluj Napoca Klujo, trolebuso Rocar de Simon 3.jpeg
Rocar De Simon trolleybus in Cluj Napoca
Rocar De Simon urban bus in Bucharest Bucharest RocarDeSimon bus 147.jpg
Rocar De Simon urban bus in Bucharest

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, OM, Lancia or Alfa chassis. [1] [2]

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, with its epicenter in Osoppo, ruined most of the plants in Friuli Venezia Giulia, 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 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, Sicily, 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 and Renault, 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 and later Mercedes-Benz. In the urban sector, De Simon held a franchise to sell in Italy the buses of the Belgian manufacturer Van Hool, between 8 and 18 meters in length, and available even with a natural gas-powered engine.

Between 1996 and 2002, the Romanian bus manufacturer Rocar 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 and Campania. Their line-up also included a touristic open-top bus called Millemiglia Zefiro. [3]

In 2006, De Simon Group established themselves as a joint-stock company mainly managing the supply of spare parts for bus bodies and repairs, maintenance, and conversion of bus bodies. [4]

In 2007, as an independent company, De Simon achieved a sales volume of 150 buses and a turnover of more than 20 million euros. [2]

Products

The current line-up of buses: [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gruppo Bertone</span> Italian automobile company

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pullman Company</span> American company which manufactured railroad cars

The Pullman Company, founded by George Pullman, was a manufacturer of railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Through rapid late-19th century development of mass production and takeover of rivals, the company developed a virtual monopoly on production and ownership of sleeper cars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magirus</span> German truck manufacturer

Magirus GmbH is a truck manufacturer based in Ulm, Germany, founded by Conrad Dietrich Magirus (1824–1895). It was formerly known as Klöckner Humboldt Deutz AG, maker of the Deutz engines, so the brand commonly used was Magirus Deutz, and for a short time Klöckner. Most trucks from Magirus were also known as Magirus-Deutz. The logo of Magirus Deutz was a stylised M with a sharp, long centre point to represent the spire of Ulm Minster.

DINA is a Mexican bus and truck manufacturer based in Ciudad Sahagún, Hidalgo, Mexico. It was created by the federal government of Mexico in 1951 as Diesel Nacional, S.A., and is currently owned by Grupo Empresarial G and its subsidiaries. The company has gone through several stages of production of freight and bus models throughout its history, thanks to technological and commercial agreements and partnerships with various companies such as Fiat, Renault, Marcopolo S.A., Flxible, Cummins, Perkins, Chrysler, Caterpillar, Scania, MCI, Škoda, Spicer, Eaton and Dana. Today its primary production is buses for urban, domestic and foreign use. They have developed their truck technology with a subsidiary of BMW.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">VDL Bus & Coach</span> Netherlands based bus manufacturer

VDL Bus & Coach is a Netherlands based bus manufacturer. It is an amalgamation of several bus building companies within the VDL Groep. VDL Bus & Coach has manufacturing plants in Belgium and the Netherlands. By 2018 VDL Bus & Coach sold 500 electric buses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Automotive industry in Italy</span> Overview of the automotive industry in Italy

The automotive industry in Italy is a quite large employer in the country, it had over 2,131 firms and employed almost 250,000 people in 2006. Italy's automotive industry is best known for its automobile designs and small city cars, sports and supercars. The automotive industry makes a contribution of 8.5% to Italian GDP.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiat 508</span> Motor vehicle

The 508 Balilla was a compact car designed and developed by Fiat in 1932. It was, effectively, the replacement of the Fiat 509, although production of the earlier model had ceased back in 1929. It had a three-speed transmission, seated four, and had a top speed of about 50 mph (80 km/h). It sold for 10,800 lire. About 113,000 were produced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iveco Bus</span> Bus manufacturer, with headquarters in Lyon, France

Iveco Bus is a bus manufacturer with headquarters in Turin. Iveco Bus is now only a brand division of IVECO which is a company incorporated under Dutch law and listed on Borsa Italiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiat 24-32 HP</span> Motor vehicle

The Fiat 24-32 HP was introduced by the Italian automobile manufacturer Fiat in 1901. The car was designed to allow coachbuilders to make various bodies to fit. It was offered with three different wheelbases, short, medium and long.

BredaMenarinibus S.p.A. was a bus manufacturer based in Bologna, Italy. The company was established in 1989 through the merger of Bredabus, the bus and coach divisions of Breda Costruzioni Ferroviarie, heir of the consortium Inbus, and Carrozzeria Menarini, established in 1919 in Bologna, anticipating those processes of industrial aggregation that would characterize the bus sector as well as that of industrial vehicles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iveco Effeuno</span> Motor vehicle

The IVECO Effeuno is a class of Italian buses built between 1984 and 1989 by IVECO. They consisted of three different models with different internal arrangement: IVECO 471 for urban services, IVECO 571 for suburban services, and IVECO 671 for interurban services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iveco TurboCity</span> Motor vehicle

The Iveco TurboCity is a class of Italian single-decker buses built between 1989 and 1996 by Iveco. Replacing the Effeuno, they consisted of three variants with different internal arrangement: Iveco 480 for urban services, Iveco 580 for suburban services, and Iveco 680 for interurban services. There were chassis only models for the extensive Italian body-building industry available.

Rocar 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 350,000 vehicles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iveco EuroClass</span> Italian intercity bus

The Iveco EuroClass is an Italian intercity coach produced by IVECO starting from 1993 as a replacement of Iveco 370.

Serbia's automotive industry is one of the most important industrial sectors and makes about 15% of industrial output of the country and 18% of all exports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carrozzeria Barbi</span>

Carrozzeria Barbi is an Italian bus manufacturer, with headquarters in Mirandola, near Modena.

Bulgaria's production strongly depended on auto imports from the Soviet block earlier and currently depends on other European and Asian countries. Presently, Bulgaria introduced its own domestic supercar company, SIN Cars and armed automobiles SAMARM.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiat 666</span> Italian heavy truck

The Fiat 666 was a heavy truck produced by the Italian Fiat Veicoli Industriali.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fiat 15</span> Italian truck

The Fiat Tipo 15 is a light military truck produced by Fiat Veicoli Industriali. Introduced in 1911, the Tipo 15 was used by the Royal Italian Army in the Italo-Turkish War and in the First World War. It was also produced in the Soviet Union as the AMO F-15.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iveco CityClass</span> Motor vehicle

The Iveco CityClass is an urban, suburban and peri-urban bus launched by the Iveco bus division in 1997 and renamed Irisbus in 2000. It is the equivalent of Agora in France. It succeeds the Iveco 490 TurboCity UR Green urban bus, later replaced by the Irisbus Citelis.

References

  1. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-26. Retrieved 2011-07-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. 1 2 "De Simon". Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2011-07-04.
  3. 1 2 "De Simon". Archived from the original on 2012-03-26. Retrieved 2011-07-04.
  4. "De Simon".