Electric double-deckers are flowing out of the revived company’s factory in Northern Ireland as it moves away from diesel and aims to double its output in 2023. ALAN MILLAR reports on what is happening at Ballymena and how Wrightbus is steering sales conversations on to total cost of ownership and lifetime aftersales support.
Wrightbus is gearing up to double production in 2023, from approaching 500 vehicles in 2022 to 1,000, of which more than 80% will be zeroemission battery-electric and hydrogen fuelcell single- and double-deckers. Some will be assembled in Malaysia for customers in Hong Kong and Singapore as they move away from diesel. That is a huge turnaround from where the business was three years ago when Jo Bamford, of the JCB construction and agricultural vehicle dynasty, acquired the UK’s second biggest bus builder — owned then by the Wright family — out of administration with a stock of part-built vehicles, some outstanding orders and a workforce down from over 1,300 at the time of the collapse to just 49. By November, it had engaged its 1,000th employee, 30-year-old construction site worker Matthew Hill, as a coachbuilder and was confident that it would soon have more on the payroll th…
