Karsan left its mark at Busworld 2023 with its complete 100% electric product range and remarkable growth performance. CEO Okan Baş: "We are uninterruptedly growing in Europe, our primary target market. Elevating our share in the European electric urban minibus and bus transport market over 5 tonnes through Karsan electric vehicles in the first half year to 6.7%, we ranked 4th in the market.”
“At the end of the year, we will be on the roads in 22 countries with a total of 1,000 electric vehicles. In North America, one of our new target markets, we have already started to provide service with 30 e-JESTs, a 100 by the end of the year. We will launch our right-hand drive e-JEST model in December. We have set a sales target of 300 units in the Japanese market for the next three years. Karsan exhibited at Busworld e-JEST, Autonomous e-ATAK, and e-ATA Hydrogen models from its 100% electric product range.
E-ATAK
The Autonomous e-ATAK is as Karsan proudly announces, the first electric autonomous bus carrying passengers in Europe and America. At Busworld it can be tested in the parking area. Okan Baş proceeded: “We have been carrying passengers in Michigan and Norway for 1.5 years with our autonomous vehicles. In addition, we have implemented our Autonomous e-ATAK projects in Chateauroux, France, in Bucharest, Romania, at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, and recently at Istanbul Technical University. When all these are combined, our autonomous vehicles, in total, have reached a distance of 50 thousand kilometres and carried 20 thousand passengers. Karsan is is innovating the E-ATAK further with a "Platooning" and "Remote Driving" feature. This is in cooperation with ADASTEC. Platooning technology allows 2, 3, or more 8-meter Autonomous e-ATAK vehicles during rush hours like a single articulated bus with imaginary bellows of 16 meters or 24 meters long, thus saving energy.
60 Years
“Karsan has 60 years of experience and a team of 2,500 people working with a start up spirit”, as Okan Baş said. Having sold 318 units in Europe since its launch, e-JEST achieved a 24% market share in the first half of this year. From the ATAK, 233 units have been purchased by Europeans since its launch, which led to a a 26% market share in the first half of the year. Okan Baş pointed out, "We have achieved a significant experience due to our 850 electric vehicles which have so far covered 100 million km distance in 22 countries, by the end of the year it will be 1,000 Karsan Electric Vehicles.” For the nearby future Karsan is to equip their vehicles with an "Advanced Heat Pump" which even can work even at minus 25 degrees. Also Karsan is working to reduce the weight of the vehicles, for the 12-meter e-ATA vehicle with 600 kilograms this year and that must be 900 kilograms in 2025, using recyclable, lightweight aluminium and carbon fiber materials."