Carrosserie Hess

Carrosserie HESS AG, or Hess AG for short, based in Bellach in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland, is a medium-sized manufacturer of buses, trolleybuses, passenger trailers, bus kits and commercial vehicles. Their vehicles operate in several countries, including the United States, Canada and Australia.

History

Early development and aluminium bus construction (1882–1970s)

The company was founded in May 1882, when Heinrich Hess set up business in Solothurn to build customised car bodies. Hess initially carried out maintenance and repair work on horse-drawn and ox-drawn wagons.

In the commercial vehicle sector, Hess produced vehicles and bodywork for goods transport as well as vehicles for passenger and freight transport. In the early years of the company, these included ox carts, horse-drawn wagons and handcarts. Over time, the company developed truck bodies with loading platforms and transport bodies for light and medium-duty vehicles. From the 1960s onwards, Hess started using lightweight aluminium constructions and modular loading platforms for trucks.[3]

By around 1900, the workshop employed eight wagon builders and smiths. In 1919, Heinrich Hess handed over the workshops to his sons Arnold and Emil, who began converting the company into a business for building bodies for motor vehicles.

Modular construction and low-floor buses (1980s–2000s)

In the 1980s, Hess introduced the CO-BOLT construction system, a modular body structure based on bolted aluminium profiles. This concept simplified vehicle assembly and allowed buses to be adapted to different requirements.[13]

In the 1990s, growing demand for low-floor buses influenced vehicle development. Transport operators increasingly required vehicles with improved accessibility, which led Hess to redesign its bus bodies and to act increasingly as a general contractor supplying complete vehicles.[14] At the same time, the company expanded cooperation with international chassis manufacturers such as Scania and MAN, supplying buses for operators in Switzerland and abroad.[15]

The company began production of low-floor buses and trolleybuses in 1991, and its first Swisstrolley model, built in conjunction with Nutzfahrzeuggesellschaft Arbon & Wetzikon (NAW) and introduced in that year, was one of the first low-floor trolleybus models anywhere.[16][17] In 2003, Hess built the first double-articulated trolleybus in Switzerland, when it built and added a middle section to Geneva articulated trolleybus No. 709 (which was then renumbered 721).[18] The experimental addition eventually led to series production at Hess of double-articulated trolleybuses in 2005, for the Geneva trolleybus system,[19] followed the next year by orders from the Zürich trolleybus system and the Lucerne trolleybus system.[20][21]

In later years, changes were made to the exterior design of buses. This resulted in a design generation known as CO-BOLT 3, which introduced larger glazed areas as well as modifications to the exterior and interior. The first vehicle with this design was presented in 2006 at the Suisse Transport exhibition in Bern.[22]

In 2007, Hess introduced the lighTram Hybrid, a double-articulated hybrid bus intended for high-capacity urban transport.[23] In the same year, the company also presented a midibus concept designed for operation on mountainous routes.[24] Later, the mountain buses, available in five lengths and in the standard width of 2.55 metres, were marketed by Hess under the name SwissAlpin.[25]

Electrification and international expansion (2010s–present)

In 2013 and 2014, various hybrid vehicles from Hess were tested in regular service. AAR bus+bahn, for example, operated a hybrid articulated bus under normal service conditions.[26] In 2014, additional double-articulated hybrid buses of the lighTram series were delivered to the Luxembourg operator Voyages Emile Weber.[27]

From 2014 onwards, Hess increasingly implemented electric bus concepts alongside the further development of the CO-BOLT-3 design. In this context, the rapid-charging system TOSA (Trolleybus Optimisation du Système d’Alimentation) was introduced. Following earlier trials, the first bus route using TOSA vehicles entered regular service in Geneva in 2017.[28][29]

The rapid-charging system tested in Geneva was later used in further projects outside Switzerland. As part of the Brisbane Metro bus rapid transit project, Hess received an order to supply 60 double-articulated electric buses of the type lighTram 25, which are charged along the route at rapid-charging stations based on the TOSA principle. For operation in Australia, a right-hand-drive version of the lighTram was developed, designed for left-hand traffic and included in the product range from the early 2020s.[30]

During the 2020s, Hess supplied electrically powered articulated and double-articulated buses to various European transport operators, including Geneva, Lyon and Nancy, where Hess vehicles were introduced as part of the modernisation of existing trolleybus and electric bus systems.[31][32][33]

As the revised KUB chassis from Scania introduced in 2021 no longer allowed the axles to be shortened, Hess decided to discontinue production of the 2.40-metre-wide mountain buses marketed under the name SwissAlpin.[34] Together with the lighTram range, which had by then become available as a battery-electric bus in all sizes, this meant that from 2022 onwards, Hess offered only electrically powered buses in its product range. The last diesel bus built by Hess was a SwissAlpin delivered to Bus Ostschweiz in March 2022.[35]

In March 2022, Hess announced that it would temporarily suspend bus production at its plant in Minsk and increasingly relocate manufacturing back to Bellach. The decision followed public debate concerning the production of electric buses in Belarus and the political situation arising from the war in Ukraine.[36] Due to increased production demand, manufacturing capacity was expanded. In addition to the main plant in Bellach, a production facility in Porto, Portugal, began operations in 2022, where body structures and bus shells are manufactured.[37]

In November 2022, Hess received a major order from the Verkehrsbetriebe Zürich (VBZ) following an international tender for the renewal of the trolleybus fleet. The order initially included the delivery of 13 battery-assisted articulated trolleybuses and 13 battery-assisted double-articulated trolleybuses of the lighTram type. Additional lighTram orders were also announced in the same year. For Neuchâtel and La Chaux-de-Fonds, 18 vehicles of the type lighTram 19 DC were ordered, and in Nancy the delivery of 25 lighTram 25 DC vehicles was agreed.[32] For the Brisbane Metro project in Australia, 60 double-articulated buses of the type lighTram 25 TOSA were ordered.[38][39] Further contracts included 40 lighTram 19 TOSA vehicles for Clermont-Ferrand and eight lighTram 19 DC vehicles for Salzburg.[32]

In 2024, Hess announced that the commercial vehicle division would be relocated from Bellach to a new site in Subingen. One aim of the move was to free up capacity in Bellach while using more modern facilities in Subingen.[40] In the same year, Hess, together with Verkehrsbetriebe Zürich (VBZ), launched the Swiss eBus plus project, a federally supported pilot programme for the development of an energy-efficient battery-electric bus. The project is scheduled to run until 2026 and serves as a research platform for studies on thermal management and battery technology.[41]

In 2024, it was also announced that the Italian city of Vicenza had ordered 16 articulated TOSA buses from Hess, intended for operation on a new line from 2027.[42]

Following the insolvency of the Belgian manufacturer Van Hool in April 2024, ongoing delivery commitments for ExquiCity double-articulated buses for the TZen 4 BRT project in the Paris region were affected. Of the 30 vehicles originally ordered, only five had been delivered before the factory in Koningshooikt closed in May 2024. To ensure completion of the remaining vehicles, Île-de-France Mobilités, the insolvency administrator and Hess agreed that Hess would lease part of the production facility and employ former Van Hool staff to complete the buses. By 2025 the majority of the fleet had been delivered.[43][44][45]

In January 2026, Hess acquired the business unit for electric trolleybus systems of the Düsseldorf-based company Kiepe Electric GmbH. Both companies had previously cooperated on trolleybus projects in which vehicles built by Hess were equipped with electrical equipment supplied by Kiepe Electric.[46]

trade name	Carrosserie HESS AG
type	Aktiengesellschaft
foundation	1882
founder	Heinrich Hess
location	Bellach, Switzerland
areas served	Worldwide
key people	Alex Naef (CEO) Ernst Basler (CFO)
industry	Automotive
revenue	230 million CHF‡R1R‡
num employees	1200‡R2R‡
website	hess-ag.ch

History

Early development and aluminium bus construction (1882–1970s)

Modular construction and low-floor buses (1980s–2000s)

Electrification and international expansion (2010s–present)

Products

Buses and trolleybuses

Bus trailer

Licence construction

Volgren, Cobus and Gillig

Company structure

External links

References