The making of a bus – MAN Lion’s City DD

Factory Expansion

As production at the existing Senai facility was almost at full capacity since 2013, Gemilang Coachworks further expanded their manufacturing facility in Johor with a new facility nearby, increasing their aggregate bus and bus body production capacity by approximately 20 buses per month. This new facility is primarily used for storage and material preparation, which frees up space and capacity at the existing Senai facility to focus on bus production (i.e CBU).

The above photo shows assembled MAN A95 Facelift buses awaiting delivery to Singapore, and other MAN A95 chassis in the background, awaiting assembly. The blue building in the background is used for the fabrication of body panels.

Recent Photos:

Production of other MAN Buses

From 2011, Gemilang Coachworks built and assembled whole buses for SMRT on the MAN chassis, using the MAN Lion’s City bodywork design. Originally available only as an integrated product from MAN, Gemilang Coachworks was awarded a license to reproduce the design. Between 2011 and 2015, it built 734 MAN NL323F buses for SMRT, along with 40 MAN NG363F buses, built with the Lion’s City Hybrid and Lion’s City G bodywork respectively.

In 2013 and 2015, Gemilang Coachwork was awarded the annual MAN Body Builder Award by MAN for most bus bodies built on MAN chassis. It clinched the same award for 3rd most bus bodies built in 2014.

Assembly of other buses

Local Alexander Dennis Enviro500 buses have their chassis built in Johor Bahru, Malaysia and assembled with the Enviro500 MMC bodywork in Zhuhai, China before being shipped completely-built-up (i.e. as a completed bus) to Singapore. Except for SMB5001A, all Enviro500 buses in Singapore are assembled there, by Zhuhai Granton Bus And Coach Co., Ltd. (珠海市廣通汽車有限公司) ^[Link].

As with thousands of other units around the world, the Mercedes-Benz Citaro bus is completely built up by EvoBus, from its monocoque structure to its interior features, then shipped as a completed bus to Singapore. Local Citaros are produced in Mannheim, Germany.

Volvo B9TL buses were assembled locally. Bodywork components in complete knock-down (CKD) form were shipped from Wrightbus, based in Ballymena, Northern Ireland. At the Bus Assembly facility in Hougang Depot run by ComfortDelGro Engineering (SBS Transit’s technical counterpart), buses were assembled and tested before being registered and put into service island-wide.

Gallery:

See Also:

• MAN A95 – Land Transport Guru
• New MAN Lion’s City Facelift DD Buses – Land Transport Guru
• MAN Lion’s City DD L Mock-up Bus – Land Transport Guru
• Go-Ahead Singapore – Land Transport Guru

External Links and References:

• The Lion is Roaring in Singapore – MAN Global Corporate Website
• Gemilang International

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