The prolific and
expansive educational power of the country's auto-industry from the
early 1960s onward did much to help provide the foundations for what
became an ever more diverse transportation-based engineering
homeland.
The commercial
prosperity and intellectually-absorbed propulsion of those co-opted
(notionally 'indigenous') foreign trucks, buses and cars provided the
roots for new domestic aspirations in both transport
engineering and much broader civil engineering.
The capital itself,
Brasilia, was designed upon the merged inspirations of then advanced
engineering; its basic road layout that of a plan-view of a modern
jet aircraft, with a long yet wide central feature (fuselage) for the
bureaucratic centre (itself consisting of water-jet fountains),
flanked either side by partially swept-back (winged) primary
road-ways. These to obviously provide high capacity flows for the
influx of new vehicles being nationally built.
The idea was to
entrance from the air both the migrating government staff from the
coastal cities and to provide the picture of futurism for the foreign
visitor. The idea was to evoke awe at the apparent highly totemic and
highly efficient modernism, a true 'Metropolis' itself appearing to
offering seamless transportation throughout.
[NB it must be
recognised that Brasilia itself became later 'sullied' by the
emergence of unplanned, squalid, dormitory satellite towns that
housed the much needed but 'invisible' low-wage commuter service
workers].
Nonetheless, that
ideological planning so well crystallised in 'clean-sheet' Brasilia
at its formation, would serve as the template for high ideals with
regards to the expansion of the mutually assistive domestically (and
foreign) financed expansion of the auto-sector.
7. Indigenous
Development - Strategic and Value-Added
The commodities,
agricultural and low-value export trade basis of the national economy
would itself serve the strategic needs of the nation and provide for
the 'value-added' ambition of commerce.
One of the obvious high
agenda requirements was country-wide public and en-mass private
mobility.
And thus throughout
modern times the bus and truck segments would be the prime targets
for successive generational waves of low-risk entrepreneurial
financing.
The Bus and Truck
Segment -
Previously much was
explained about the rise and fall of government backed 'FNM' (Fabrica
Nacional de Motores) which itself manufactured a massive 'national
fleet' of Isotta-Frashini and Alfa-Romeo licenced heavy trucks
between the mid 1950s and early 1970s.
FNM's impact was
enormous in obvious commercial terms and arguably over-shadowed what
at the time was the new beginnings of a substantial national bus,
truck and coach body-building sectior.
Invariably, as was seen
prior to WW2, the domestically made bodies would be married to
foreign chassis-cab expertise.
Thus, just as with
cars, it was the foreign provision of the fundamental 'rolling
chassis' technology that allowed domestic production of the vehicle's
shell and interior to flourish. It could be said that the activities
of Brazilian bus sector was the impetus and template for previously
seen Gurgel SA regards body-on-chassis indigenous cars and vans.
Thus it would be the
truck-makers of Europe, America and Japan who would either set-up
dedicated Brazilian production centres, or agree the licensed local
production, for the manufacture of the largely unseen but vital
'Chassis Cabs'.
The following names
have come to dominate
- Ford Truck
- Volkswagen Truck and
Bus
- DAF (Paccar Group)
- Iveco
- Mercedes-Benz Truck
and Bus
- Scania (VW Group)
- MAN (VW Group)
- Volvo Truck and Bus
Interestingly, the
historic strength of advanced Western HGV-makers becoming somewhat
eroded by two factors:
- The perceived shift
for indigenous producers - led by Agrale SA – to “package
engineer” their own chassis-cabs from domestically-made and
foreign-made component sets (eg Mitsubishi-Fuso / Toyota-Hino).
- The arrival of fully
built-up Chinese truck imports (eg Metro-Shacman SA)
This understood, we can
now view the historical and modern eras of Brazilian Bus and Coach
Body Construction. The prime domestic and 'foreign transplant'
participants being:
Domestic Body-Builders
-
1. Caio Induscar
2. Busscar
3. Marcopolo
4. Neobus
5. Mascarello
Transplants -
6. Irizar (Spanish
owned)
Domestic Chassis-Cab
Producers -
7. Agrale
Package Integrators -
8. Comil
Caio Induscar SA -
[HQ: Sao Paulo /
Botucatu, Sao Paulo State].
Formed in 1946, the
company named CAIO was created as one of a three-pronged government
mandated commercial effort to mobilise Brazilians.
[NB The other ventures
being Busscar and Marcopolo, see below. These both invariably relied
on pre-WW2 Ford, GM, Dodge and other branded American and European
truck platforms].
Historically beyond
obvious major influence in its home country, have been exports to
various EM nations including: South Africa, Angola, Chile, Costa
Rica, Ecuador, Lebanon, Nigeria, Turkey, Dominican Republic, Tahiti
and Trinidad and Tobago.
In 2001 CAIO was sold
to the transportation group Induscar Group for build and operate
integration purposes with a focus on streamlining the vertical
value-chain.
And in 2007 the company
formed Caio North America to produce finished vehicles named
G3400/G3600 on the (Daimler-owned) Freightliner cab-chassis for US
clients.
As proudly illustrated
on its website, Caio Induscar reached its 70th anniversary
this year, and is the longest-lived of Brazil's bus-builders.
The most recently
delivered contract has been to the state of Belem in northern Brazil,
wherein a fleet of articulated vehicles offer what appears
best-in-class product attributes with WiFi included along with
various solutions for the aged and less-able bodied.
Busscar SA -
[HQ: Joinville, Santa
Caterina State]
The company was, as
stated, also established 1946 and was operational, with municipal and
commercial build-orders right up until 2012.
However unlike its two
peers, it originated as a carpentry firm by the two Neilson brothers
(of Swedish descent) with focus on house-building items. Soon however
the firm diversified into the re-building of older buses and truck
bodies, initially continuing to obviously utilise old carriage-making
methods with cheap and easily worked wooden body frames and seating
and thin-section wooden skin panels.
However, under
President Kubitschek's 1950s Plan for fast economic growth, it was
quickly recognised that the vehicles would need to become primarily
metal for durability and in-service longevity.
The market demand of
the era set a firm basis beneath the firm and allowed for product
improvement and range expansion, with important innovation and/or
landmark products offered in 1961, 1987 and 1998.
The financial potential
of Busscar Onibus (formerly 'Carrocerias Nielson') drew the
attraction of private equity players, and eventually the firm was
majority sold after the sudden death of the then family CEO.
However whilst
international expansion was indeed successful at first, it was
financed in an all too typical PE manner of heavy debt exposure. The
Global Financial Crisis of 2008 saw the order book collapse, and thus
the corporate notes and rolling-debt agreements could not be
serviced, leading to financial ruination.
[NB the company is the
focus of a 2016 academic paper from Sao Paulo and Porto (Portugal)
universities regards the management of international expansion under
family and non-family control, indicating that Busscar's
over-extended ambitions and ultimate bankruptcy under transitioned
non-family control would have been avoided if the descendants of the
founders had maintained a typically 'Swedish' and 'Family'
conservative approach].
This unfortunate ending
though should not over-shadow the immense success and national impact
that the firm enjoyed during its long heyday, producing a broad array
of buses, electrically propelled 'pantagraph' trolley-buses and
coaches.
Marcopolo S.A. -
[HQ: Caxias do Sul, Rio
Grande State].
Founded in 1949 by
eight partners and fifteen employees, the firm's original name was
Nicola and Cia Ltda, As seen with CAIO previously, up until 1949
buses were bodies in wood, but Marcopolo dedicated itself to all
steel (and aluminium) manufacture from 1950 onwards. An early strong
order book required a shift to another larger site in the Plateau
District.
Unsurprisingly there
was much American influence and the early vehicles had a very similar
styling with corrugated body-sides and basic 'brightware' as tropes
of the modern, whether on GM or predominantly Mercedes chassis. The
name became Carrocerias Nicole SA and in 1961 the first export
contract was signed for Uruguay. It was in this decade that the SWB
midi-size joined the full-sized vehicle to serve the suburbs, smaller
towns and rural locations with dirt-track roads.
By 1969 some of its
leisure and tourist vehicles had become on par with those in the USA
and better than many in Europe. The watershed 'Marcopolo II' was
produced and offered a transformable cabin between seating and
bedding, in the style of the trans-continental rail carriages of
Europe and the best coach-services in the USA. Of such impact, the
company adopted the name in 1971 as its official title. A second
factory site was created in1981 at 'Ana Rech' and by the mid 1980s a
(what was then) 'full-line' of dedicated vehicles was on offer. And
to retain as broad a domestic and international market reach as
possible, the firm continued to re-body and build 'anew' upon the
technically older yet still very capable 'recycled' vehicle chassis
(such as the ubiquitous Mercedes LK).
The 1990s saw
model-line expansion and pertinently a dedicated Marcopolo School
opened for the instruction of new drivers and additionally (to a
smaller extent) the 'bringing-on' of younger technicians, staff and
managers in the locality. Production of its 100,000 vehicle,
undoubtedly deliberately scheduled as the top of the range
double-deck 'Paradiso' Tourist Coach The late 1990s saw delivery to
the Brasilia BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) network.
The 2000s saw technical
and feature update of the model range, the company was recognised for
its national and international marketing ambitions and success, and
delivery of the Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro and Racife BRT Systems
vehicles. The 2010s saw delivery of similar dedicated-roadway
'bendy-buses' to the Torino e Viale BRT system in Belo Horizonte.
The firm well
recognises the importance of its historical achievements, and indeed
those persons who helped to obtain them. Hence, a very respectable archive of material is today dedicated to
the memory of Valter Gomez Pinto, who himself directed efforts per the success of the firm on behalf of all stakeholders. “Bravo” to the
present Board for highlighting Sinhor Pinto.
Neobus S.A. -
(Marcopolo Group)
[HQ: Caxias do Sul, Rio
Grande do Sul]
The company came into
existence in 1999, the strategic aim of the parent company to have
Neobus initially dedicated to serving both South and North American
continents.
As regards Brazil and
intentions for broader LatAm and elsewhere, to differentiate itself
one of Neobus' star products is the “Mega-BRT”. Using either a VW
or Daimler base as a 'traction-head' it is one of the longest
'bendy-buses' in the world. The triple-section, double-pivot
articulation provides a truly snake-like appearance and function so
as to maximise its carrying capacity and aid mobility. Its obvious
aim to fulfil the high-capacity demands of many EM 'Mega-Cities' and
the new generation of dedicated 'BRT' roadways.
As regards North
America, in 2012 a JV was formed with the US chassis-cab producer
Navistar, the new enterprise named NeoStar. This accords with the
obvious strategy of targeting federal, state and municipal spend on
expanded public infrastructure – what with the probable plateauing
of car ownership and rise of the 'sharing economy'.
Critically the
establishment of such a satellite operation in the US also allows for
Neobus to in the long-term create additional agreements with the
other chassis-cab producers who themselves operate on both northern
and southern continents.
This provides for far
better economies of scale and so cost savings when both business
units (NA and SA) simultaneously order similar or even divergent
platforms. If indeed feasible series-produced chassis-cab costs could
even be possibly calculated based upon the value of shared internal
engineering modules, especially important in this high electronics
age, thus dissecting the margins of suppliers, as opposed to the
conventional finished view of finished powered-chassis.
Mascarello S.A. -
[HQ; Cascaval, Parana
State].
The firm's origins
stems back to 1957 when three-sister companies within the land and
agricultural sectors formed the Mascerallo Group.
Mascerallo Carrocerias
de Onibus was founded in 2003 by the portion of group situated in
Paraná, given its historic need
to transport staff and the high potential of increased populational
mobility across Brazil, with recognition that such 21st
century mass-transit needed to be innovative.
As
to whether the firms products are indeed advanced compared to peers
is debatable, but nontheless it utilised conventional know-how to
quickly create a full range of buses, from six-wheel full-sized to
mini and across all user types. Morerover, (as with its competitors)
it offers a Special Vehicles section by which specifically detailed
or high customisation requirements can be met.
Within the 13 years of
existence the firm has taken over Comil SA and today offers 5 types
of Coach, 3 sizes of Urban Bus, 1 type of midi-sized Bus, 2 types of
mini-sized Bus and 2 types of micro-sized Bus.
Export orders have been
gained across the whole of Central and South America and across much
of Western and Eastern Africa, demonstrating its commitment to EM
nations as a prime client base.
It Service offering has
been expanded to provide conventional after-care, but this a specific
interest has been taken to ensure the availability of parts via a
parts-network, given the likelihood that those ordering from less
developed nations will invariably run their fleets for longer and
more harshly (poorer roads, greater propensity to carry fully-loaded
and over-loaded with passengers and likelihood of light and heavy
accidents).
Thus Mascarello's
business model has itself been moulded around the very real
operational needs of its mixed-bag of export order customers.
[NB Mascerallo then
itself illustrates Brazil's commercial role as 'bridge' between
near-AM and second-phase EM nations worldwide].
Foreign Form Brazilian
'Transplants' -
Irizar -
[HQ: Ormaiztegi, Spain]
This company is a
leading light in Spain's global commercialism, with 'transplant'
factories in: Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Morocco, India and China,
with a best-year annual output of approximately 3,000 units.
Its Brazilian operation
is located in Botucatu (like Caio Induscar) opened in the early
2000s.
This site was
undoubtedly chosen because of Caio Induscar's parallel existence, any
municipal support (tax breaks and incentives) and the long-time
existence of Neiva SA (an aircraft company swallowed into the Embrear
Group. (Embraer obviously additionally seeks to gain from a
skills-transfer of the locally grown 'fit-out' capabilities from Bus
to Aero).
[NB It should be noted
that 'layout design', component specification and labour intensive
'fit-out' of small and mid-sized aircraft are not dissimilar to coach
and bus. Thus the locally grown skills from CAD operator to build
technician could be transferred between Neiva and Irizar if one
sector unfortunately experiences a cyclical downturn].
Botucatu has become a
centre for Bus and Coach production, with undoubtedly a high
potential for higher-value specialist work prior to the manually
intensive production phase.
Thus Irizar will follow
in the footsteps of VW, FIAT, GM and Ford by creating incrementally
deepened Design, Research, Engineering and Prototyping capabilities
within Botucato, with a high likelihood that as much as possible can
be learned via technology transfer with the aeronautical sector,
especially regards weight and rigidity for fuel-efficiency,
safety-handling/accident avoidance and ride comfort, seating
development and even perhaps 'automatic pilots' on uninterrupted
trans-continental overland routes.
Additionally, Irizar
owns two sub-companies (ie air-conditioning and ramps) as part of its
own vertical integration chain, this a likely rationale for Brazil's
indigenous body-builders.
Domestic Chassis-Cab
Producers -
Agrale S.A. -
[HQ: Caxias do Sul, Rio
Grande do Sul]
'Agrale' is a
portmanteau of the full and proper name of 'Agram Tro Le' S.A, the
company created in 1962 with the remit of manufacturing tractors.
Since then it has become perhaps the de-facto heartland of Brazilian
industry, with a span across:
- Tractors (and adapted
variants)
- Trucks
- Chassis-Cabs (Bus and
Coach)
- Off-Road Vehicles
(Military and Private - various)
- Generators (Large
Static to Small Mobile, and Ancilleries)
- Fork-Lift Trucks
The product span is
diverse spanning agricultural, industrial and transportation, with an
historical strategic remit to effectively provide for Brazilian
industrial independence, that mantra since much exported elsewhere.
The corollary across
such a broad vehicle portfolio is obvious, learning taken from one
sector into another, whether that be durability from tractors to
trucks or comfort from trucks to tractors and much beyond.
To this end Agrale SA
has acted as a major contribution towards technical transmittance
regards improved costs and quality.
As per Chassis-Cab
production, all bus segment sizes are catered for to the Euro V
level. However, all powered chassis are front engined (thus akin to
the under-structure of the military trucks). This older style –
compared to rear-engined large vehicles - is the generally preferred
placement for operators seeking lower purchase costs who run vehicles
in more demanding conditions, whether rural or mountainous, because
of the better balance and traction offered when the vehicle is
partially and fully loaded.
Thus it is assumed that
Agrale SA is typically dedicated to such needs.
The most interesting
aspect is that the company has grown to become the only Brazilian
chassis-cab provider, and though seemingly 'old-fashioned' has honed
product from experience to suit the further reaches of Brazil, LatAm
and much of developing world beyond the biggest EM countries with
indigenous truck-makers (India, China, Russia etc).
This is true of today,
but it may be the case that at some point in the future that Agrale
identifies an opportunity for a rear-engined chassis with tied-in
service contracts made available as an entry-level basis for what
might be described as lower-lifecycle cost 'BRT' schemes in various
second and third tier cities across EM nations seconding to replicate
(on a budget) the schemes seen in leading countries.
Domestic 'Package
Integrators' -
Comil S.A. -
(Mascarello Group)
[HQ: Erichem, Rio
Grande do Sul]
'Comil Carrocerias e
Onibus' was established in 1985 when it – backed by the Corradi and
Mascerello families - bought the 'fire-sale' assets of the bus
producer Incasel via auction. The old model products were continued
in low volumes at the original location whilst a new factory was
built in the newer designated Industrial District of the city. The
turning tide of an improving national economy underpinned increased
success, whilst in 1991 export orders were gained to Argentina and
Chile.
Comil is effectively an
'integration specialist'. It buys-in high-value module sets and
component parts from dedicated foreign suppliers, whilst
manufacturing in-house the lower-value components so as to have a
full inventory of items by which to build a complete vehicle.
Present procurement of
powertrain comes from Mitsubishi's Fuso division, which obviously
points to possibilities of follow-on procurement from Toyota's Hino
or Isuzu Truck so as to maintain high quality levels in core
engineering systems, whilst improving in-house capabilities for other
systems and parts.
2004 saw export orders
to the Middle East and the start of a new line of 3-axle coaches,
thus providing for a broad portfolio of alternatively sized vehicles
and uses.
Today, in a typically
Brazilian corporate manner, Comil espouses its CSR and Ecological
consciousness which vitally underpins the image that the Brazilian
government seeks to promote both at home and abroad.
In Conclusion -
Brazil well recognised
the competitive advantage of its bus-building sector, which is able
to span both AM and EM realms. As such in the lead-up to the Olympics
and Paralympics it sought to further distinguish itself by creating
and demonstrating world-class vehicles with a value proposition.
Those vehicles were
seen and experienced first-hand by visiting foreign government
officials, the influx of foreign tourists and business people.
Part of that grand
export ambition was especially dedicated to (all too ironically) the
notionally ovetly 'advanced' USA, given its far greater focus on
public transport relative to re-urbanisation trends and its own
tardiness in catering for the physically disadvantaged on public
transport.
But the major aspect of
the 'Rio Infrastructure Showcase' was to illustrate its capabilities
to the plethora of “path-finding” EM countries, so that it may
further raise export relations. And a prominent aspect of this
strategy is the need to fulfil the public and private mass-tyransit
needs of the world's emergent Mega-Cities: the 'network nodal' city
centres, expanding suburbs and rural connections.
Thus Brazil championed
and “highly articulated” the snake-inspired “Mega-BRT”
system, which when derived from good, well planned and executed road
and infrastructure planning allows for the speedy movement of
millions of people per day.
To this extent it
should be reasoned that projects such as the original 1960s Brasilia
and the 2000s “Mega-BRT” have set the template for the
'long-view' planning of many EM nations.
As necessary, the
Brazilian body-builders/retailers have expanded their own offering to
include an ever improving 'Sales and Service' dimension, such support
perhaps especially vital to overseas buyers who inevitably require
experienced hand-holding for years into the future.
This spans a) technical
assistance, b) maintenance advice, c) service and repair parts
provision and d) dedicated product operation and technical training.
To this end, the Bus
and Coach sector espouses the best of Brazilian global
brand-building.
