Spanish Coachbuilder Irizar Slowly Making Inroads with U.S. Customers

ORMAIZTEGI, Spain – After a year in the U.S. market, Spanish bus and motorcoach manufacturer Irizar is slowly making inroads with customers and continues pursuing its goal of capturing 10 percent of the premium coach market in the next four or five years.

“We had a really good year,” said Axier Etxezarreta, director of Irizar USA. “It has been a challenge, but whenever you enter a new market you expect that.”

Etxezarreta said Irizar, the largest bus and motorcoach manufacturer in Spain, has 40 of the company’s i6 motorcoaches in the U.S. Twenty of the coaches have been delivered to customers and the rest are used as demonstration models.

He said another 10 to 12 motorcoaches have been ordered by customers and are in production.

Irizar introduced two versions of its 45-foot i6 motorcoach model last year through INA Bus Sales, the company’s Las Vegas-based U.S. distributor. The company also has sales offices in California, Texas, Georgia and Michigan.

Although the company is new to the U.S. market, it has been operating around the world for 127 years. It has manufacturing facilities in five countries – Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Morocco and South Africa.

Irizar sells its coaches in 90 countries, with its largest markets being Spain, where it sells 600 coaches a year for a 40 to 50 percent market share, and Mexico, where it sells 700 to 900 coaches a year for a 60 percent market share, Etxezarreta said.

Etxezarreta said the company expects to do well in the United States because operators here want the same things as Irizar’s customers in other countries: “a good and reliable product that can be customized and complies with the USDOT regulations.”

The company made some design changes on the i6 coaches sold in the U.S. to meet federal standards and to conform to this country’s roads. For example, the U.S. coaches are wider than those sold in Europe, where the streets are narrower.

The coaches sold here also are longer – the company’s European models are 35, 40 and 42 feet long – and they have a lower center of gravity and a longer wheel base for more stability on the highway.

Both models feature Cummins engines and Allison automatic transmissions. The vehicles are manufactured entirely in the European Union and have been fully adapted to meet the regulatory requirements, demands and needs of North American operators, Etxezarreta said.

He added that standard coach features that have been common in Europe for years, such as full independent suspension and active tag steering, are becoming popular in the U.S., as well.

The company plans to introduce other models here in the future, such as its flagship i8, which offers the latest technologies from the automotive industry, such as LED headlights, tail lights and marker lights. Safety features include adaptive cruise control, advanced electronic braking, lane departure warning, driver fatigue detectors, and automatic light and wiper sensors.

For now, however, Irizar plans to focus only on selling two i6 models in the U.S.

Irizar also has been manufacturing electric transit buses for the past couple years for use in European cities, and it is possible the company will so meday introduce them in the U.S.

“It’s open,” Etxezarreta said. “No one knows the future. We could adapt them to the U.S. but it will take longer and it is a big investment. We are taking it step by step to see how big we grow in the U.S.”

He added that the company also would consider opening a manufacturing plant in the U.S. someday “depending on our performance in the market.”

Another option could be manufacturing U.S.-bound coaches in Mexico, although that could depend on whether President Donald Trump follows through on his threat to impose a 35-percent tax on products made in Mexico for sale in the U.S.

“These political decisions may affect our decisions,” Etxezarreta said. “But the door is not closed at all.”

He said Irizar’s main focus for the near term is to introduce U.S. customers to the company and its long-term success in Europe and other parts of the world.

“When you enter a market like the U.S., you are a new opportunity for people,”he said. “So you have to show them what you can do. We have 127 years of experience and our goal is to show customers how strong a business we are.”

Customer service also is key to achieving that goal, Etxezarreta said.

“Sales come from the performance of the coaches and the service provided by our local team,” he said.

When Irizar entered the U.S. market last year, it said its strategy was to position itself as a premium brand in the coach market and to eventually capture 10 to 15 percent of the market in the premium segment.

Etxezarreta said that while that still is the case, the company doesn’t expect a huge growth in sales overnight. But as the market stabilizes, it hopes to achieve its target over the next four or five years.

“Our coaches have gotten a good reception from customers,”he said. “We’ve had good contacts with customers and the performance of the product has been really good. So we are happy.”

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