Solaris Bus & Coach

Solaris Bus & Coach S.A.
	170px
Type	Public
Industry	Automotive industry
Founded	2001
Headquarters	Bolechowo, Poland
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Solange Olszewska, Krzysztof Olszewski
Products	Buses
Revenue	€292.2 million
Operating income	€20.6 million
Profit	€13.5 million
Total assets	€126.1 million
Total equity	€87.6 million
Number of employees	1562
Website	www.solarisbus.com

Solaris Bus & Coach S.A. is a bus, coach, trolleybus and tram manufacturer based in Bolechowo near Poznań, Poland.^[1]

It is a family-owned business, with Krzysztof Olszewski as co-owner and his wife Solange as CEO.

History

Solaris started as Neoplan Polska, founded in 1994 by Krzysztof Olszewski. Neoplan Polska was selling, and since January 1996 also building under German licence, low-floor Neoplan city buses. In 1999 it released first buses under its own Solaris brand (model Urbino). On 1 September 2001 Neoplan Polska was renamed to Solaris Bus & Coach Sp. z o.o. In 2005 it was transformed into a joint stock company.

In the 1990s, the company developed its own research office and used computer software originally developed for the design of space shuttles. It reduced the time needed to design and build new prototypes to about six months.^{[citation needed]} Another six months are needed to build a new bus prototype.

Trolleybuses are made in co-operation with the Hungarian company Ganz Electro or (the Czech division of) the company Cegelec and Polish company Medcom. Both companies make the electric devices for the vehicles. Solaris produced the first European bus model using hybrid technology,^{[citation needed]} the Solaris Urbino 18 Hybrid. That hybrid model was delivered in November 2008 to the Polish city of Poznań.

In 2007 Solaris was employing about 1,200 workers, in 2009 about 1,600 workers. Now "Solaris Bus & Coach" builds about 1,000-1,200 buses a year.^{[citation needed]}

In 2014, Solaris sold 1,380 buses and trams. 280 went to Poland, 197 to Germany, with other important markets being Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Italy and Turkey. It was another record year in sales for the company.^[2]