Rocar

Rocar S.A.
Public company
Industry Bus manufacturing
Founded 1951
Defunct 2002
Headquarters Bucharest, Romania
Products Buses, trolleybuses, vans

Rocar (also T.V. or Autobuzul) was a van, light truck, bus and trolleybus manufacturer based in Bucharest, Romania. The firm begun manufacturing light offroad vehicles and later heavy road vehicles, the lighter vehicles were usually based on original ARO components, parts and ARO running gear.

History

UATV or Uzina Autobuzul Tudor Vladimirescu company based at Bucharest was created in 1951, and the first production lines were made for rolling-stock equipment and agricultural machinery. From the 1960s much of UATV motorvehicle production was very similar to USSR and East European vehicles with heavy use of domestic parts like components and mechanicals sourced from other Romanian manufacturers like ARO, Brasov, DAC, SR. Starting with light to medium forward control commercial range mostly based on the Russian UAZ company which explains the availability of offroad vehicles soon enough with heavy development shared with ARO.

In 1956 the first bus was built on a truck frame and in 1957 the production program was enlarged also for trolleybuses, mini-buses and pick-ups made after the own design of Rocar. Beginning with 1968, Rocar started exporting vehicles in Eastern Europe, Africa, South America and Middle East and, in 1971, it bought a license from MAN, Germany.During the 80's and early 90's ROCAR made some exports to the Soviet Union and Bulgaria. After 1990, Rocar had a cooperation with the bodywork company De Simon from Italy.[1] During the 80's, ROCAR issued a lot of prototypes, but very few of them went into series production. Also, with few exceptions, ROCAR ( then Autobuzul) vehicles were almost omnipresent in Romania in the domain of persons transport vehicles and light to medium weight charges, as imports were banned in Romania. This situation will change after 1990 with the fall of communism in Romania. During the '80s due to harsh economy and shortages, the quality of ROCAR ( Autobuzul) products, decreased a lot, only export vehicles were of better quality.

In the '90s, ROCAR lost most of its customers (urban transport companies), mainly because of low quality, low production capacity, and high prices, lack of exports therefore many of their former customers bought second hand buses and trolleybuses from west, leading ROCAR to high losses towards the end of the '90s and early 2000s when it went bankrupt. Because of massive second hand bus import in Romania, the company faced difficulties in the late '90s and was struggling to survive mainly due to low demand, however they launched a low floor bus and low floor trolleybus (in cooperation with Autodromo BusOTTO) named 812, but because of low capacity production of the factory and high price, it proved unattractive. ROCAR lost many employees between 1990 and 2002, either retired or found another job (in RATB, Truck & Bus services, car service, etc.) . Between 1990 and 2002, very few exports were made, demand was very low even in Romania.

However, in 1996 ROCAR signed a contract with RATB and Bucharest Local Council for Buses, therefore over 300 buses Rocar De Simon U412 were delivered between 1996 and 2002, and also renewed some manufacturing technologies, but the number of built vehicles was still to low, however after the moment when RATB hurt ROCAR some years before, by acquiring new DAF busses and some second hand busses, and later new Ikarus IK415T for trolleybuses. Trolleybuses were not any more from ROCAR, however a few ROCAR trolleybuses were delivered to RATB, 14 trolleybuses. However, the contract with RATB and Bucharest local Council did not improved the deteriorating situation of ROCAR of the mid to late '90s, because other public transport companies( and other customers like The Army or Interurban Transport Operators) in Romania completely refused to buy its products (main reason stated by them being the low quality products, prices are to high, low availability due to low production capacities, outdated, and they were acquiring instead second hand vehicles mostly (except for The Army, which were buying GRIVBUS or other new vehicles). ROCAR was also affected by concurrence of two new Romanian manufacturers of busses, trolleybuses and light weight transport vehicles, the same profile of ROCAR : ASTRA BUS ARAD, a new Romanian bus and trolleybus manufacturer, under IRISBUS and Grivbus another new Romanian busand light weight transport vehicles manufacturer. They took some of ROCAR's customers, like RATB, Army, and some public transport operators as these two newer manufacturers were using newer technologies, manufacturing more actual vehicles, and with a better quality, and a higher capacity of production and lower prices. In 2001–2002, ROCAR signed a contract with Constanta Council for 100 Buses and 40 trolleybuses, but only 15 trolleybuses were delivered, 2 of them in half assemble state. Few buses were delivered to Constanta but were having major manufacturing deficiencies, therefore they were returned However Constanta Council paid for the undelivered buses. Massive second bus hand imports from west which continued in Romania even after 2000, and also contracts with ex soviet manufacturer MAZ and some other manufacturers ( Irisbus, Isuzu, BMC) gradually sent ROCAR to lack of demand and finally to bankruptcy. Rocar, after 1990, also suffered from technology retard, using outdated technologies, manufacturing outdated products (some of them even 30 years !) in low capacity, and at high prices, thus leading ROCAR to huge losses and loss of employees. Although Rocar De Simon U412 was a fairly modern vehicle with EURO 2 engine and automatic transmission, and chopper in case of some trolleybuses it did not prove a very big success, as many other transport companies still preferred second hand buses/trolleybuses or other new buses/trolleybuses ( MAN, Mercedes, MAZ, Ikarus, BMC, ), accentuating the deteriorating situation of ROCAR. Rocar De Simon (E/U 412) remained in production until the factory went bankrupt. As a last attempt in their struggle, ROCAR was courted by SOLARIS BUS, for a partnership to assemble URBINO busses from Poland as CKD, but eventually cooperation between ROCAR and SOLARIS BUS failed, only one vehicle is supposed to be built (other said that only the badge ROCAR was attached to it, the bus was in fact made in Poland). However, in the past, many other well known manufacturers (like Scania, Daf, Renault, Volvo, Mercedes, even MAZ (they wanted a partnership with ROCAR in mid to late 2000, just like the one with De Simon, to assemble busses as CKD delivered by MAZ, models 103, 104, 105,107 were proposed)) wanted to buy ROCAR or wanted partnership with ROCAR for assembling busses, trolleybuses and light commercial vans, but eventually gave up, and after 2000, no company showed no interest. In Romania, ROCAR was the only bus and trolleybus manufacturer and small commercial vehicle, until ASTRA BUS ARAD and GRIVBUS appeared on the market. Rocar officially stopped production in early 2002 as there was no more demand for their products (however, production was restarted in the summer of 2002, but very few vehicles were built), exports were down, many workers left because they were unpaid for months, and by the late 2002 production fully ended and ROCAR went into bankruptcy, however not before last vehicles were delivered to companies which acquired them. Debts were at a very high level, so were the loses. In the early 2003, while ROCAR was in its last days of life they made some repairs and reconditioning to some old buses belonging to the army and some other bigger companies (like dacia), however no new demands were registered, and losses increased. In late 2003 and early 2004, the company was liquidated and radiated from the registry of commerce, ending 52 years of bus manufacturing in Romania. Its precursors are from now on, Grivbus and Astra Bus Arad. Some half assembled vehicles were sold to ( or taken by) some customers together with spare parts and assembled by the customer, some other unassembled vehicles were sold as spare parts to customers which had previously acquired ROCAR products. Spare parts remained into the factory were also taken by companies which were operating ROCAR vehicles, probably as a debt, or by companies which were selling spare parts. It is rumored that some of these were sold by liquidators in order to recover some losses. Other old type vehicles remained unassembled in the factory were scrapped as they had no value, however many of their former customers were, by now, affording new modern vehicles.

ROCAR also had a football team called Rocar Football Team, and had a football terrain and stadium. Also it had a high school, today named Grigore Cerchez.

Product line

City buses

Rocar De Simon U412 in Bucharest

In the 70's, some of these buses were converted to diesel, with D797-05 SAVIEM engine. Some other models, were converted to operate on methane GAS in the late 70's early 80's on surviving models. Top speed : 75 km/h. It was replaced in ROCAR's line up in 1974 with much more modern MAN based buses.

Rocar Montana (midibus);

Intercity buses & coaches

Trolleybuses

Rocar DAC 217 E trolleybus in Cluj-Napoca

Used in : Cluj, Iasi (1 vehicle numbered 512), Bucharest (2 vehicles 7447 and 7448), Timisoara.

Used in : Bucharest (7454 and 7459 with AC traction system), Constanta (15 vehicles), Cluj (2 vehicles), Piatra Neamt (brought from Constanta 5 vehicles). Models from Constanta were in fact equipped with reostatic controller and adapted for 825 V operation.

Only in Bucharest. Not any more in use. Numbered 7449-7453 and 7455-7458. Only 9 vehicles built. There was also a single U512 Bus.

Light commercial vehicles and minibuses

Stamp with T.V. 12 M
T.V. 12 S ambulance in front of the United Nations field hospital in Mogadishu, 1993

T.V. 105;

To the present day, many ROCAR light commercial vehicles are mainly withdrawn from service and were replaced with newer and more modern vehicles, however spare parts for ROCAR vehicles became scarce after the bankruptcy of ROCAR, however also the running costs became higher.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "ROCAR SA". Winne.com. Retrieved 20 September 2009.
  2. ↑ "Autobuze cu caroserie De Simon". Tram Club Romania.
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