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Irizar surprised Busworld with the i8, the Spanish bus manufacturer’s brand-new showpiece. It is the successor to the Irizar PB, the illustrious bus whose production will be discontinued next year. However, the new i8 still has plenty of familiar features that made the PB so famous.
The unique ‘face’ is still there and has been styled further. It is now in a V shape, which is repeated at the back. The ‘face’ is further embellished with LED headlights. The back has a sleek design and is accentuated by the beautiful LED back lights. The i8 is once again an integrally constructed coach fitted with a DAF MX 13 engine. The Spaniards talk about a service interval of 100,000 kilometres, which seems to create the first condition for a favourable TCO. During this edition of Busworld, only integrally constructed coaches are on display at the Irizar fair booth, including a new i6 three-axle and of course the electric city bus i2.
The seats of the new i8 have been especially designed to reduce weight, promoting the comfort of the passengers. Irizar developed the seats in close cooperation with Vogel. The driver disposes of a completely new, ergonomic dashboard. The tools and the display for the navigation and the like are strategically located and very accessible. The navigation can be operated by means of a joystick. All other accessories, such as the air-conditioning, entertainment, microphone, camera operation and the like, have been put together in a central console.
Worldwide
In total, Irizar invested 18 million euros in the i8 project; 10 million euros of which went directly to the new coach concept itself and eight million euros were spent on techniques that can also be used for the other Irizar models. The turnover of the Spanish company, which has sites all over the world, amounted to 550 million euros in 2014, 80% of which from the export. For this year the company is expecting a production worldwide of 3,000 vehicles. Some of these will also find their way to the USA, a market that is becoming increasingly important to Irizar. The coaches for this market are constructed in Spain.