De Simon

De Simon Group S.p.A.

Type	Joint-stock company
Industry	Bus manufacturing
Founded	1925, 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.

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, 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.

In 1976 an earthquake having the epicenter in Osoppo ruins most of the plants in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, including the one of De Simon. Ilvo together with his sons Giovanni and Alvio manage to rebuild the plant in only two years time. The new site covers 70,000 square meters and includes two office buildings and a test track.

In 1978, De Simon together with Breda Costruzioni Ferroviarie form up the new consortium called Inbus, which achieves in the eighties a share of 30% of the national bus market. During this time, De Simon builds 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 disband 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 from 1993, De Simon focuses 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 franchises and sells in Italy 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, Romanian bus manufacturer Rocar and De Simon have a cooperation for the assembly of 400 urban buses.

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 are used in the towns of Puglia and Campania. Their line-up also includes a touristic open-top bus called Millemiglia Zefiro.^[3]

In 2006, De Simon Group established themselves as a joint-stock company and manage mainly the supply of spare parts for bus bodies or repairs, maintenance or 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]

• De Simon Millemiglia 12 HD
• De Simon Millemiglia 10 HD
• De Simon Millemiglia 10 Eav
• De Simon Millemiglia Zefiro

Gallery

• 

  Inbus touristic bus

• 

  Inbus U210 urban bus

• 

  Inbus AID 280 FT articulated bus

• 

  Rocar De Simon urban bus in Bucharest

References

1. ^ http://www.anav.it/Data/BM200806/Pg0018.pdf
2. ^ ^{a b} http://www.desimon.it/index.php?op=12
3. ^ ^{a b} http://www.desimon.it/index.php?op=123
4. ^ http://www.desimon.it/index.php?op=7

External links

• De Simon Millemiglia HD review by Bus & Pullman (Italian)
• De Simon Millemiglia Zefiro review by Bus & Pullman (Italian)