Trends and challenges in the French bus and coach market, through the lens of Autocar Expo 2024
Despite some adversity (political instability in France, the bankruptcy of Van Hool) Autocar Expo 2024, held from 3 to 6 December in Lyon, closed the doors on a positive trend in terms of visitors and sales. But even these order books were hiding a dark reality.
by Jean-Philippe Pastre
Despite some adversity (political instability in France, the bankruptcy of Van Hool) Autocar Expo 2024, held from 3 to 6 December in Lyon, closed the doors on a positive trend in terms of visitors and sales. But even these order books were hiding a dark reality.
With more than 6,600 visitors (+10% vs the previous edition in 2022), Autocar Expo 2024 has overcome adversity: the manufacturers and bodybuilders received lot of orders from private operators. The change of dates (from October to early December) did not have a negative impact on attendance. On Thursday (3rd day of the exhibition) the previous edition’s visitor volume was reached. So the 4th day was all bonus. Van Hool and VDL were missing but Iveco Bus made a surprise with the world premiere of the Crossway Elec (normal floor).
For the French market, through his importer FCC Bus, Isuzu brought the Novo Volt. Scania displayed two new coaches for the French market: an Irizar i6S 13.37 4×2 designed for 59 passengers, toilets and more than 8m3 of luggage capacity. The second novelty is the Higer Touring in 10.8m long version (originally designed for the UK market). The Ford Transit is doing a come-back on the school bus segment thanks to the French bodybuilder Dietrich Vehicules who carries out its homologation to bring it into compliance with French regulations.
The customers are investing on the entire energy mix and this might be seen through our orders with 50% of CNG and 35% of pure electric buses. The operators look for the sustainability of their investments in filling stations. There is a tendency to maintain CNG in the tenders
Solène Grange, Iveco France General Manager
Retrofit efforts focus on the Crossway
The retrofit segment was represented by to companies who got the UTAC homologation and new type numbers1 for their kits, all of them designed for the Iveco Crossway with a Dana TM4 electric engine. But the strategy is different between them: GCK is focusing on a hydrogen fuel-cell technology (Toyota or Symbio depending of the donour) doing the conversion work in-house near Clermont-Ferrand while CBM Retrofleet is only supplying battery kits to be fitted by five accredited body shops (Besset network plus Bacqueyrisses for the South-West part of France).
The expo reflected the global behaviour of the French market with a kick-off on the touristic coach segment (which explained the focus made on these models from Daimler Buses, Irizar, MAN Neoplan). This is why Solaris Bus or Karsan didn’t come (but Solaris Bus has booked a booth from 1st to 4th December during the 2026 edition of Autocar Expo, confirming the upcoming arrival of a new inter-urban coach into the range).
For the operators, Autocar Expo 2024 was also an opportunity to make some communications : BlaBlaCar Bus launched his first operations running with biofuels (thanks to the Autocars Pays de Savoie), and the Transports Voisin celebrated the first 500,000 km with Oleo100 on Iveco Bus Crossway B100 compatible.
Solaris new intercity model expected in 2026
Obviously, the expo reflected the global behaviour of the French market with a kick-off on the touristic coach segment (which explained the focus made on these models from Daimler Buses, Irizar, MAN Neoplan). This is why Solaris Bus or Karsan didn’t come (but Solaris Bus has booked a booth from 1st to 4th December during the 2026 edition of Autocar Expo, confirming the upcoming arrival of a new inter-urban coach into the range).
CNG keeps doing well, coaches on recovery
Solène Grange, Iveco France General Manager, says that the French market is growing of around 5% (from January to November 2024) but with huge differences between activities: urban buses are on a positive trend. “The customers are investing on the entire energy mix and this might be seen through our orders with 50% of CNG and 35% of pure electric buses. The operators look for the sustainability of their investments in filling stations. There is a tendency to maintain CNG in the tenders.”
The Ile de France Mobilités strategy could be a perfect illustration of this statement. “The only segment on a decline is the interurban due to the delays in the factories. For Iveco Bus, we expects an increase of our market share in this segment in France, thanks to our industrial improvements and cooperations. The launch of the Iveco Crossway Elec at Autocar Expo is also a politic message2 : Iveco Bus employs 2,000 people in the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes Region. The minibus market is very dynamic with +14% an Iveco is at the first place if we include the chassis to the built-in models. This is nothing compared to the coach segment at +59% between 2023 and 2024”.
Solène Grange estimates the 12 months market at around 800 units, which means that it is not far for pre-Covid years (at 1,000 units). On the coach sector, Daimler Buses represents nearly 33% of the French market.
Positive trend and concerns
According to several observers, the growth of the French market would have been higher if the factories could have delivered more vehicles.
Malina Marjanovic, Sales director at Daimler Buses in France said that “the orders books are full until 2027. The orders are linked to manufacturers’ load plans”. As a consequence “all the qualitative Euro VI 2nd hand coaches are quickly sold out at high prices”.
Marc Eschenlauer, Area manager for the coach market at MAN Trucks & Bus France summarise the situation : “finally, the touristic coach segment is back, but this took time. The factories are saturated due to the increase of orders and the disappearance of actors”. In a sigh, he adds: “It is never good to be chosen by spite by new customers just because you’re the least saying about times for deliveries”. Guy Payraudeau, sales manager at Indcar France confirms the situation on the Midi-coach market : “At this time, we must be modest on the deadlines. We got firm orders during the fair.”
The industrial landscape is suffering, despite high demand
Regulatory issues have been on the minds. GSR-II, with all the consequences for the electronic architectures and connectivity comes first and impact not only the coach manufacturers and bodybuilders but also all the telematics suppliers for data access and connections (they were so many at Autocar Expo 2024).
Loss of manufacturers, plant closures and regulatory deadlines (Vecto, Euro VII) concern exhibitors, customers and professional associations like the FNTV. Jean-Sébastien Barrault, FNTV President said that it is a real problem for the FNTV members. “The consequences of the delays impact our operators because some local authorities put them fines if they don’t put on the road the promised new vehicles”. He observes “this is a multi-factorial crisis: there is the pressure of the UE with the energy transition, with GSR-II. But this is also a consequence of the suffering and failure from the suppliers. All amplified by global demand.” He recalls: “25% of the European coach capacity production has been missing during the last 18 months”3. “The EU is doing in the bus what we did in the car. The revision clause in 2027 is far too late. The manufacturers will have made their decisions on Euro VII by that date. How will we manage without the energy mix ?”. A topic which was in foreground during some talks hold at Autocar Expo.
1 “Homologation par type” : French equivalent to the European CoC
2 Fabrice Pannekoucke, President of the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes Region visited the fair Thursday 5th December alongside with Jean-Sebastien Barrault FNTV President and Anne-Marie Baezner Eurexpo General Manager.
3 He refers to the closures of the Volvo coach factory in Wroclaw (Poland), the Van Hool plant in Konigshooikt (Belgium), plus the standby at VDL Bus & Coach about the new Futura, the difficulties at Sunsundegui, the delays within the specialized coachbuilders like Irizar or Beulas.