MAKING ITS DEBUT in Jakarta, Indonesia, the first Busworld Southeast Asia exhibition at the JIexpo centre attracted around 6,900 unique visitors and was a huge success recently, organisers report.
The brand new event was the “place to be for all Southeast Asian bus lovers”, whom attended to check out the latest designs of buses and coaches, components and spare parts, combined with attending presentations at the Conference organised by Busworld Academy.
Held 20 – 22 March, 2019, it welcomed the biggest and most popular bus and coach builders in the region: Mercedes-Benz, Volvo Buses via its importer Wahana Inti Selaras, and among others the Indonesian bodybuilders New Armada and Laksana.
According to aficionados, the exhibition was splendid. The exhibitors had made a great effort to design and build their booths and the whole venue looked very attractive, Busworld states.
Premiere products included the brand new Mercedes-Benz OF 917 coach, and a double decker coach with Adi Putra body on a Volvo B11R chassis. As a demonstrator Laksana had built a bus quite similar to the Volvo 7900 on a B8R chassis, Busworld states.
BODY BEAUTIFUL
A predominantly a bodybuilder market, Indonesia has around 600 of them. New Armada and Laksana, present at Busworld, belong to the top, it’s claimed. Mostly they build on chassis from Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and Scania – all Euro 3. At this point it is not clear whether Indonesia is opting for a higher emission level like Euro 5 or 6, it must be noted.
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Safety systems are becoming more standard. For the mini and midibuses, chassis from Isuzu and Fuso are widely used. The decision for which body is used in this localised system is from the operator, who chooses the chassis and then the body, Busworld explains.
The quality of the finish is good and matches European standards, the organisation states. Coaches for long distances are very luxurious with comfortable seats with leg rests often in a 2+1 layout, it adds.
ALLIANCE SYSTEM
Askarindo is the federation of bus bodybuilders in Indonesia, which formed a partnership with Busworld as did the operators represented by Ipomi, the federation of young bus and coach operators in Indonesia.
In response Didier Ramoudt, president of Busworld International, mentioned plans to double the size of the exhibition in 2021. He was backed by Baki Lee, president director of GEM Indonesia, co-organising partner of Busworld, who stated the focus of the next edition will be much more on electric buses, Busworld says.
The Indonesian bus market is rapidly growing due to expansion in public and tourism transport and an urgent need of renewal of fleets, it adds.
Photography: courtesy Busworld