KYIV. Dec 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Etalon Corporation seeks to start supplies of the Tulpan 10-meter buses meeting Euro 6 emission standards designed jointly with DAF to Eastern Europe in Q3 or Q4 2017, Corporation President Volodymyr Butko has said.
He said that the key event of this year for the corporation was the start of cooperation with DAF. Two models of 10-meter intercity buses – А08420 and А08430 (for the European market) with front engines meeting Euro 5 emission standards have been designed jointly with the company.
“We presented the bus at an exhibition in Hannover (Germany) in September 2016. The bus aroused the interest. We have contacts of representatives of several interested countries. We are not ready to supply them, as Euro-6 standard is in effect in Europe now. DAF has supplied Euro-6 chassis. We plan to design a first bus by next summer. We will test it and then certify to start supplies to the European market,” Corporation Vice President Valeriy Kuptsov said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.
He also said that the interest to the bus was shown due to its competitive price (EUR 90,000, VAT not included), while the price of analogs on the Isuzu and Iveco base is EUR 130,000-140,000.
“DAF helps us. It gives us its dealers. The company also expressed desire to sell buses on the Ukrainian market. We understand that this could be only a ‘club’ bus in Ukraine. Companies can buy them to transport employees or sports teams. We do not consider them for transportation of passengers,” Butko said.
The buses could be exported to Baltic state, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Romania.
