BusTech 80 buses behind schedule, says new owner

Bus manufacturer BusTech, which was bought out of administration last week, is well behind schedule and could still fail, its new owner has warned.

The new owner of BusTech says the Adelaide bus company is 80 deliveries behind schedule and has appealed for help from the state government to help it regain the lost ground, warning the company could still be forced into liquidation without assistance.

However, Go Zero chief executive Stephen Cartwright also said that a revived BusTech could “really seriously compete with the Chinese and the Europeans for producing world-class buses’’.

Go Zero chief executive Stephen Cartwright.

BusTech was placed in administration last month, but was bought by GoZero after a creditors’ meeting on Monday. Mr Cartwright said there was now a three-week window to finalise the purchase, but that was subject to certain conditions being met, including flexibility on delivery dates from the state government.

“I need the state government to meet with me and go through the delivery arrangements, so they don't necessarily impose the same strictures on me as they had on the prior owners,’’ he said.

It is believed the state government has been working with the former owners for a number of years as BusTech struggled to deliver buses on time.

Mr Cartwright said there were currently 30 buses under construction, with some almost complete, plus another 50 on which the build had not yet started.

“I think all 80 should have been delivered already,’’ Mr Cartwright said.

Complicating the matter is that the state government’s contract for delivery of the buses is with Swedish company Scania. Scania provides the chassis and BusTech completes the build.

A spokesman for Transport Minister Tom Koutsantonis said it was “heartening that a buyer for BusTech has been identified’’ but reiterated that “contractual obligations ultimately rests with Scania’’.

Scania declined to comment.

The previous Liberal government signed a contract for 350 buses to be delivered by 2029.

Australian bus manufacturer, BusTech (SA), has begun delivery of 20 new school buses, including 17 hybrid-electric, to meet increased demands on South Australian school bus routes. Picture: Supplied

Mr Cartwright said GoZero had considered buying BusTech before it went into administration. It already has a factory in western Sydney that had supplied 60 zero emission buses to the NSW government.

“BusTech does have a factory in Brisbane, does have a factory in Adelaide and when you put the two capabilities together they’re very complementary and it makes us the largest bus manufacturer in Australia,’’ he said.

He said BusTech had run into trouble because their manufacturing process had been “too time consuming and too expensive’’.

He noted BusTech’s former owners also had a company that built racing cars.

“If you apply the same finesse and the same investment in technology and R&D that you do in race cars into buses, you will go broke,’’ he said.

“From our perspective there are some pretty easy wins we can. get in terms of

lowering the cost of producing buses without lowering the quality.’’

Mr Cartwright said while some “white collar’’ jobs may be axed under the new regime, he expected he would “fairly rapidly’’ need to employ more workers on the production side.

Originally published as BusTech 80 buses behind schedule, says new owner