Habas prepares to enter the European and Turkish bus market. Series production in November 2024

Habas officially entered the bus world at Busworld 2023 in Brussels. Habas’ bus division is the latest challenge from a Turkish group with a capital “g,” as it has an 80 percent market share in the gas market in the motherland, operating in disparate sectors: iron, steel, shipyards, ports, and even banks. And now even buses.

We approached the Habas booth at the IAA Transportation in Hanover, where they reiterated what is the goal for the “newly formed” division: to enter the Turkish and especially the European market, but also the countries of the so-called CIS area, namely Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, despite problems with Russia.

Habas’ bus & coach portfolio

Series production of the portfolio models will be located in Manisa, Turkey, and is expected to begin in November. No orders have yet arrived, partly because they have not yet been mass produced, precisely, and at least so far no distributors have yet been identified in the European market. But partnerships with future dealers are being worked on.

In Habas’ offerings for the bus world we find the Comfort City, a Class I Low Floor diesel-powered Step E by Paccar, with a length of 10.8 meters; then the Comfort City-e (11.880 mm) battery-powered in-house with LFP chemistry, Voith engine, 11,880 millimeters, and also the fuel cell version (Comfort-City H2) in the same size, again with Voith engine (with 250 kW maximum power) and fuel cell capacity of 80 kW. Also for urban mission profiles, here is the Alfa City-e midibus, which like its big brother is driven by Voith e-powertrain (powered by Habas LFP batteries) with 250 kW maximum power. The length of the midi is 8,200 millimeters.

Also in the portfolio there is a coach: this is the Alfa Lux–e: it is an 8,200-millimeter “mini” coach, engine again Voith (maximum power 250 kW) and LFP’s homemade batteries.

Methane and biofuels, from what we have been told, are not part of the spectrum of options envisioned by the company.