The bus and coach manufacturer was looking for a special moment to launch its 10th anniversary in Australia. It found the ideal opportunity in the Sydney suburb of Seven Hills.
When Yutong Bus started planning celebrations for its 10th anniversary of operating in Australia, it found the perfect moment to begin the festivities.
The bus manufacturers managed to track its first-ever D7 bus sold on Australian shores. Yutong descended on the Sydney suburb of Seven Hills on a sunny Friday in June to reconnect with the 10-year-old bus.
“It‘s really exciting for us,“ Vehicle Dealers International (VDI)/ Yutonggeneral manager Lou Riccardi told ABC.“It‘s a fantastic story. We‘ve managed to track down the first vehicle sold in Australia on our 10th anniversary.
“Seeing the vehicle, still operated by the original owner and in such great condition, is great to see.“
When Riccardi got to Seven Hills to see the bus on that sunny Friday, he wasn‘t disappointed. The local community still uses the bus, running daily without any issues. In a significant boost for the way Yutong builds its buses since first supplying to Australian customers, Riccardi says the Seven Hills vehicle could keep driving for another ten years.
The Seven Hills RSL bought the bus in 2012 on behalf of the local Royal Life Saving Aquatic Academy. The bus drives school students from schools to the aquatic centre and back for swimming lessons.
Without the Yutong bus, Royal Life Saving aquatics manager Bernadette Neal says many kids over the past decade may not have received the potentially life-saving training.
“Transport and the cost of transporting kids to pools is one of the biggest barriers facing children learning to swim in our area,“ Neal told ABC. “So, the Seven Hills RSL funded the bus ten years ago and continues to support us by sponsoring the two buses we currently run.
“Now we deliver around 3,000 school swimming lessons to children in the local areas and have done so for ten years.“
A decade ago, the decision to fund the Yutong bus was a no-brainer for the Seven Hills RSL. President Barry Wilson says the choice for members to pitch in and buy the bus for the aquatics centre and school swimming program has been worthwhile.
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“It’s all to do with the kids and help them out wherever we can,” Wilson told ABC. “The Royal Life Saving Aquatic Academy does a fantastic job, and it’s an excellent organisation to be involved with.
“Our members had no issues in sponsoring them ten years ago. Our charity work and helping the local community has been very important to us.”
Riccardi says discovering the impact Yutong’s first bus sold in Australia had on local groups is a special feeling. With Yutong looking for a meaningful way to begin its 10th-anniversary celebrations, the manufacturers found the perfect moment to reflect on its journey in Australia to date.
After expanding operations onto Australian shores, a decade ago, Yutong’s general manager says the company is now the most prominent bus manufacturer in the world, producing up to 70,000 vehicles per year, ranging from 14-meter buses to smaller six-meter models, including articulated and double-deckers. On the zero-emissions side of operations, Riccardi says Yutong is also the largest electric bus manufacturer in the world, with over 164,000 vehicles running routes in all continents except Antarctica.
He says Yutong’s success comes down to the after-sales service and support VDI provides to its customers.
“Selling the bus is the easy bit,” Riccardi says. “We’re all about the service and backup we provide our customers.
“The after-sales service glues our operations together. We don’t sell buses; we sell service and backup, differentiating us from our competitors.”
Riccardi isn’t the only person at Yutong excited about the year-long festivities in 2022. Yutong Australian director Charles Hwang has been with the manufacturer for 11 years and has worked with the Australian team for three years. He says finding the first D7 sold in the country and comparing it to the latest D7 model is a great feeling.
“Comparing the two, we can see significant developments and improvements made in our buses over the years,” Hwang told ABC. “Our team has continuously worked with Australian customers to provide the most suitable products.
“Ten years is a long time – it’s a generation of Yutong workers that have been working with local Australian communities. To find our first-ever bus in the country is an incredible moment.”
The Seven Hills reunion with Yutong’s first D7 wasn’t just a chance to celebrate the past but also the present. The manufacturer brought its latest D7 model to show the Seven Hills community.
The new Yutong 27-seater can be configured into 28 seats and crosses all market mining, school, charter, and coach sectors. Riccardi says the bus can be arranged into a 23-seat bus with reclining seats if required. Also, we can fit a wheelchair lift and have 23-seat passengers making it an accessible and versatile vehicle.
When it comes to its capabilities, Riccardi says the Cummins 190 horsepower engine and 150-liter fuel tank it possesses has the new D7 up at the top of its class in its market segment.
“It’s a class within a class,” Riccardi says. “The new D7 comes standard with a 360-degree Mobileye Advanced Warning System, backup cameras, ABS, EBS, ASR and ESC, and a Euro VI Cummins engine, so it’s a step up.
“We’ve put the opposition on notice with this vehicle, and the price point is excellent.”
Riccardi expects the electric D7 to hit Australian roads within 12 to 18 months. The D7 is being spruiked alongside a brand new 57-seat school, mining, and charter bus set to premiere at the Bus & Coach Expo later this year. Combined with the brand’s 10th Australian anniversary, it all makes the Yutong general manager excited about the company’s future direction.
“We’re going to electrify our whole fleet in the coming years,” Riccardi says. “We’ve already got the vehicles ready to make this transition.
“For us, it’s solely about going through rigorous procedures to ensure the vehicles are tried, tested, and proven before hitting the streets.”
Ten years into its venture in Australia, Riccardi says Yutong will focus on its safety technology for the coming years as it continues to grow and transition towards an emissions-free bus market. The general manager says the decade old D7 first sold in Australia proves the manufacturer has historically focused on intense safety procedures. He says this focus will only improve in the years to come.
“One of our mottos forYutong is we don’t consider the market as a testingground, we consider the testing ground as the market.,” Riccardi says. “The improvements we make in technology and safety are leading the global market.
“We’ll keep bringing safety to the forefront with our new vehicles – we’ll continue upping our game.”