Van Hool

Van Hool – Delivering Cutting-edge Transporation Solutions

Based in Koningshooikt, Van Hool is a private Belgian bus, coach, and industrial vehicle builder. The business, which was established in 1947, will mark its 75th birthday in 2022. The US and Europe are the final destinations of the great majority of the units manufactured. Around 3,500 people work with Van Hool globally, the bulk of them are employed by the Koningshooikt (Belgium) and Skopje production plants (North Macedonia).

There were 22 employees and 6 family members when the business first began. The early coachworks, which frequently took their model and design cues from enormous American automobiles, were a major success. Van Hool has worked hard to maintain its own character and style since the outset. Van Hool immediately understood the notion of adaptability as a result. He realised that he would need to create a fundamental model for chassis construction in order to operate logically and produce a large number of them. Customers may still personalise their coaches with their own touches.

In order to cover the months when fewer buses and coaches were being manufactured with different bodywork, a CIS (Special Commercial Coachwork) section was established.

The first Van Hool coach bodies were transported to Leopoldville in 1954 after a slump in the market in the early 1950s drove Van Hool to the Belgian Congo in search of economic prospects. It served as inspiration for later actions in Africa, primarily in Algeria but also in Nigeria, Angola, and Tunisia.

The Netherlands received the first coach bodies, and over time it would develop into a genuine home market. building a new plant on the opposite side of the street.

The delivery of the 1,000th coach body from Van Hool. Nearly 500 coaches were constructed.

A business deal with Fiat for the supply of engines and other mechanical parts was struck on February 15th, 1957. (gearboxes, axles and steering wheels). Coachbuilder Van Hool transformed into a full-fledged Belgian producer of self-supporting buses and coaches under the name Van Hool-Fiat. Catrabel NV was established in 1961, and as a result, industrial vehicle production began in 1965. The after-sales business, which had been founded in 1957, had a new building complex built that year that included warehouses and repair shops for maintenance.

The first coaches for Great Britain were created in 1965. These received five "Coach of the Year" awards from the British Coach Rally's "Concours d'Elegance" in the years that followed.

The new I.V. factory's foundation stone was placed on July 6, 1974. De Misstraat was renamed Bernard Van Hoolstraat on January 1st, 1976 as a homage to the creator by the Koningshooikt municipal council.

The A120, Van Hool's first complete city bus, had a flexible powertrain option. At the Paris Salon, the Alizée coach company's new coachwork line was shown.

On the first day of Euro Mobility Expo 2022, an international trade expo for public transportation, Van Hool, a Belgian manufacturer of buses, coaches, and industrial vehicles, unveiled its first edition of a completely new range of 100% zero emission buses.

A brand-new line of buses with four distinct lengths (12m, 13m, 18m, and 24m) with only zero emission powertrains—battery-electric, fuel cell (hydrogen), and trolley—begins with the Van Hool A12 Battery Electric.