There was great outrage when it emerged at the beginning of this year that De Lijn had ordered 92 new electric buses from the Chinese BYD and not from Flemish bus builders such as Van Hool. When it became clear not much later how much trouble Van Hool was in, the link was quickly made for many opinion makers and politicians: De Lijn should simply order new buses from Van Hool to help the Lierse bus builder, says Jos D, among others. ‘Haese, Flemish Member of Parliament for PVDA. And Minister of Mobility Lydia Peeters (Open VLD) also expressed the hope in Parliament that De Lijn would still order buses from Van Hool.
But, co-CEO Marc Zwaaneveld said at the special works council on Thursday morning: Van Hool no longer wants to supply De Lijn, because the conditions of the public tender are not favorable for the company. Read: it cannot supply the electric buses profitably (or profitably enough). In 2021, Van Hool concluded a framework contract with De Lijn for the supply of hundreds of electric buses. This was striking because Van Hool was initially not eligible to compete for the order because it had not yet built too few electric buses.
Only after the procedure was adjusted was Van Hool able to compete and immediately submitted the best offer. But in order to steal the contract from competitors, Van Hool undercut his price. It does not want to do that again in the future, Zwaaneveld told the unions.
It also immediately shows that Van Hool still has difficulty competing against larger competitors, especially in the production of city buses – which are rapidly becoming electric. Although these city buses have been made in North Macedonia for years (where labor costs are considerably lower), Van Hool has little experience in the production of battery buses and the family business lacks the scale to purchase the relatively expensive batteries cheaply (and quickly) enough. to tap. It faces competition from companies such as the Chinese BYD (which controls battery production itself) or large groups such as the German conglomerate Man, which purchase large quantities of batteries at once.
Van Hool therefore wants to “become more selective in accepting new orders from public transport,” said a press release after the works council on Monday. But for coaches, which are often used for long distances, electrification is happening much more slowly. And Van Hool thinks he can still make a stand against the competitors. Especially with luxury coaches, which are tailor-made for customers, the margins are even greater than with city buses, which are produced in series. Van Hool will “strategically reorient its activities towards market segments where customers consciously choose high quality,” according to the press release.
Industrial vehicles
Sales of those coaches came to a complete standstill when corona brought travel to a standstill, which is partly the cause of the problems at Van Hool. But now that corona is behind us, the market is picking up again, and Van Hool hopes to still make a profit. The company wants to move its entire production of coaches (which is still partly done in Flanders today) to its factory in Skopje, North Macedonia.
Zwaaneveld wants to keep the knowledge center for research and development and the construction of prototypes in Koningshooikt in his recovery plan. Although the unions are wondering whether this can simply be disconnected from production, which is moving to North Macedonia. And the industrial vehicles department, such as semi-trailers for trucks, would also remain in Flanders, where there is a large sales market.
