Ten years ago, on February 21, 2013, the function of selling bus equipment was transferred from NEFAZ PTC, a subsidiary in Bashkiria, to KAMAZ. A bus sales service was created in the unit of the Deputy General Director for Sales and Service.
According to Samat Sattarov, Director for Passenger Transport of KAMAZ PTC, the company has come a long way in the “passenger transport” development during this period. The company, which initially was only one of the market players, eventually took the position of the market leader in the large-class bus market and the absolute leader in the electric bus market in Russia. Passenger transport sales quadrupled during this period.
“In 2022, about 1,500 buses and 55 electric buses were delivered to consumers. Despite all the difficulties of the outgoing year, we maintain a leading position in the large-class bus market and occupy 28% of the market at the end of the year, outperforming our closest competitor in terms of sales by 69%, in the electric bus segment we are the undisputed market leader in the Russian Federation with a share of 85%," said Samat Sattarov.
In 2022, the company continued to supply vehicles to Moscow and fulfilled two contracts for buses and electric buses, supplying a total of 218 vehicles. KAMAZ participated in the Transport Reform of St. Petersburg, having delivered 364 gas buses to the city. KAMAZ became the only supplier of passenger transport which delivered vehicles under the Transport Reform without violating the delivery deadlines. In addition, 2022 was a successful year in terms of expanding the geography of sales. The company entered new sales markets by delivering large lots of buses to Kirov, Voronezh, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, St. Petersburg, Obninsk, and Nizhny Novgorod Oblast.
Work was also actively carried out to promote buses and electric transport in the regions, potential partners were given the opportunity of test operation. For example, the KAMAZ-6282 electric bus successfully passed test operation in Belgorod, Sochi, Volgograd, and Rostov-on-Don, the trolleybus was tested in St. Petersburg, buses were tested in Moscow Oblast, St. Petersburg, and Kostroma. In order to promote products, the company actively participated in major exhibitions: SPb TransportFest, St. Petersburg International Gas Forum, BW Expo in Moscow. During the BW Expo exhibition, according to the results of the Grand Prix competition organized by the Za Rulem magazine, three KAMAZ new products at once became winners in the Large Class Buses nomination.
“At the BW Expo exhibition, we presented a restyled suburban bus NEFAZ-5299-31-52 with improved performance, which was positively evaluated by our prospective consumers. Based on the results of the exhibition, we signed a contract with the largest passenger carrier of Moscow Oblast Mostransavto JSC for the supply of 329 such buses,” said Samat Sattarov.
Among the advantages of a wide range of models are quality, modern design of the exterior and interior, a well-thought-out driver's workplace and, of course, comfort and safety for passengers. Realizing customers’ growing demands, the company develops services for the integrated supply of rolling stock.
“Together with the sale of passenger vehicles, we are ready to provide a package of high-quality prompt warranty and post-warranty service in the format of a life cycle contract. We are also launching the BuStream project, which will provide remote monitoring and diagnostics of nodes. Our product will automate the collection of data from rolling stock into a single cloud storage. The system will implement a product portfolio that can satisfy both the basic and the most advanced needs of the owners of passenger vehicles. For example, the software will allow you to automatically perform remote diagnostics of vehicles. This will help customers not only reduce the cost of servicing the fleet, but most importantly, it will significantly increase the reliability of the operation of our vehicles,” said Samat Sattarov.
Today, the passenger transport division employs 30 professional employees. 37 dealer companies are involved in the sale of passenger vehicles. Over 10 years of operation, 9,600 buses and 805 electric buses have been sold. Revenue from the sale of passenger transport amounted to 96 billion rubles.
The consequences of the sanctions pressure that Russian industrial enterprises faced under the new conditions did not affect the company's wide opportunities in the production of passenger vehicles. KAMAZ continues to supply modern comfortable vehicles to the Russian regions, contributing to the implementation of the national project "Safe High-Quality Roads" and solving other priority tasks for the country. All buses are handed over to consumers on time, which confirms the reliability of KAMAZ PTC as a supplier of passenger transport.
In 2023, the company plans to bring to the market new models of passenger transport, work on which was suspended in the previous year due to the transition to alternative components. These are extra-large-capacity buses, the so-called “accordions” in diesel and gas versions, a trolleybus, which will be the development of a line of electric vehicles and comfortable buses of the middle class. As for sales, the plans are to increase sales of electric vehicles and increase sales of passenger transport by 24% compared to 2022.