Wednesday, 30 October 2019

Moving to Brussels is a Great Success for Busworld Europe


The biggest Bus and Coach only exhibition in the world organised its first visit to

Brussels from 18th to 23rd October 2019. The exhibitors, visitors, members of the press and

the organising teams have all agreed that it was a great success. 


Busworld was bigger and better than ever.



All numbers increased: more space (50,000 to 79,000 sqm), more exhibitors (376 to 511

of which 176 were newcomers) and more visitors (37,274 to 39,798). Overall
feedback was very positive meaning that 2019 has been a milestone in Busworld’s

history.

International audience

511 exhibitors came from 37 countries with top attendances from Turkey, Germany and China.

Visitors came from 143 countries which is a significant difference in comparison with

118 countries in 2017.

Redgy Deschacht, President of Busworld, said " Due to the continuous growth of the Busworld show, it was decided to move to 
Brussels Expo, a bigger exhibition centre: . 

Previously Kortrijk Xpo was a very popular location, although it had been too small for some years. Today everyone is unanimous: Brussels was the right choice.


Electrification, a natural theme

Although Busworld never determines a specific theme, electrification developed itself naturally for 2019. Almost every bus, present inside and outside the Brussels Expo, was equipped with an electric driveline. It was all about batteries, autonomy, kWh, charging possibilities,… clearly electricity was in the air.

Busworld Awards, the winners

Like in previous editions, Busworld organized its own competition: the Busworld

Awards. All vehicle manufacturers were invited to take part in it with the vehicles they

presented during the show.

The Grand Award Bus went to the hydrogen-powered Van Hool Exqui.City FC Design

Pau. Thanks to its capacity of operational autonomy, which totally surpasses that of

other vehicles, the hydrogen fuel cell bus has also been awarded the Ecology Label.



The jury praised the safety features, the completely separated driver space with

centrally located controls, the excellent visibility for the driver and the multitude of

cameras covering the entire external area of the bus.


The hydrogen-powered drive converts hydrogen and oxygen into electrical energy through reverse electrolysis. On the one hand the electricity is used to power the vehicle and, on the other, unused energy is stored in lithium batteries for additional power where and when needed, such as when pulling away from a stop. 
The only emission from this “zero emission” vehicle is water vapour.

The Grand Award Coach went to the Volvo 9900. It wins through good scores on design,

maintenance, driving quality, comfort and acceleration. Safety is another asset of this

coach, which yields Volvo the Safety Label once again. 



The jury was impressed by the passive ; active safety automated fire extinguishing system, black box system and on board computer, the driver passive safety (energy absorption zone) and the passenger safety (light entrance and exit).



Below is an overview of the awarded Labels of Excellence:



BUS

• Comfort Label Bus: Mercedes-Benz eCitaro

• Safety Label Bus: MAN Lion's City Hybrid

• Design Label Bus: Yutong U12

• Ecology Label Bus: Van Hool Exqui.City FC Design Pau

COACH

• Comfort Label Coach: Van Hool EX11H

• Comfort Label Coach: Setra Topclass S 531 DT

• Design Label Coach: Yutong T13

• Ecology Label Coach: Yutong ICe12

• Safety Label Coach: Volvo 9900


Pictures from the exhibition below











More pictures can be found here