Yutong
Yutong is a Chinese manufacturer of commercial vehicles, especially electric buses, headquartered in Zhengzhou, Henan. Yutong also has businesses in construction machinery, real estate, and other investments. As of 2016 it was the largest bus manufacturer in the world by sales volume.
History
Yutong's origins can be traced to the Zhengzhou Bus Repair Factory, which was established in 1963. Zhengzhou Yutong Bus Co., Ltd. was founded in 1993; and in March 1997, Yutong became the first bus company in China on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The following year, Yutong opened its ¥400 million Yutong Industrial Park in Zhengzhou, which was the largest bus factory in Asia at the time.By 2005, Yutong had a 22% market share of buses and coaches across China, becoming China's biggest bus manufacturer, and had won an award for being the best manufacturer in China by the World Bus Alliance. In March, Yutong began exporting buses worldwide to markets such as Latin and South America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe.
Yutong first entered into the electric bus market with the opening of its 'New Energy' manufacturing plant in 2012, and in 2014, opened the National Research Center on Electronic Control and Safety Engineering Technology of Electric Buses in conjunction with the Chinese government. In 2015, Yutong conducted the world's first road trials of an autonomous bus, demonstrating self-driving technology on a drive on a highway between the cities of Zhengzhou and Kaifeng.
As of 2018, Yutong had exported more than 64,000 buses and coaches, with nearly 25,000 of these in 2017 being either battery electric or CNG-powered. The company's sales and service network covers six regions worldwide: Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Latin America, Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. Yutong buses and coaches have been delivered to countries and regions such as France, the United Kingdom, Kazakhstan, Venezuela, Chile, Ethiopia, Cuba, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Australia, Saudi Arabia and Bulgaria.
Yutong Bus
Zhengzhou Yutong Bus Co., Ltd. is a large-scale modern manufacturing company specializing in the research and development, manufacturing and sales of bus products. Its main plant is located in the Yutong Industrial Park in Guancheng Hui District, Zhengzhou, and covers an area of 1.12 million square meters. The 'New Energy' manufacturing plant of Yutong Bus which was put into operation in 2012, covers an area of over 1.33 million square meters and has an annual production capacity of 30,000 buses and coaches. As of January 2025, the highest capacity is 630 kWh.Yutong Bus also operates a number of completely knocked down manufacturing plants worldwide. A manufacturing plant in the western Venezuelan state of Yaracuy was opened in December 2015, and in collaboration with Pakistani heavy vehicle manufacturing company Master Motors, Yutong Bus opened a manufacturing plant at Port Qasim in Karachi in 2016, where buses are manufactured under the brand name Yutong-Master. Yutong Bus also plans to open a final assembly plant in Castleford in the United Kingdom, where Yutong buses and coaches are distributed in UK and Ireland through the Pelican Bus and Coach dealership.
Products
- City Master, a retro style double-decker bus based on the AEC Routemaster, built exclusively for Skopje, North Macedonia
- E8 electric midibus
- E9L electric city bus
- E10/E12 electric city bus
- E12DD electric
- U12 electric city bus
- U11DD electric
- U12DD electric
- CL6/CL7 coach
- T7 minibus / limousine
- GT12/C122 coach
- TCe12/ICe12 coach – up to 50 seats,, 281kWh Lithium Iron Phosphate water-cooled battery, range over
- ZK6122HD9 coach
- ZK6108HG city bus
- ZK6118HGA city bus
- ZK6122H9 coach
- ZK6120D1 coach
- ZK6120HR 12-meter series
- ZK6129HCA coach
- ZK6122HD9/ZK6122H9 coach
- ZK6119H2 coach
- ZK6119HA coach
- ZK6752N1 coach
- ZK6115D front-engine bus
- ZK6729DX school bus
- ZK6669DX school bus
- ZK6107H coach
- ZK6105 coach
- ZK6100HB coach
- ZK6126HG city bus
- ZK6128HG city bus
Autonomous buses
In June 2021, Yutong claimed to have delivered 100 models of its 10-seat Xiaoyu 2.0 autonomous bus for use in Zhengzhou. The Xiaoyu 2.0 has also been delivered to the cities of Guangzhou, Nanjing, Zhengzhou, Sansha and Changsha, with public trials due to commence in July 2021 in Zhengzhou.
Exports
Cuba
Yutong holds a strong presence in Cuba since entering the Cuban bus market in 2005. That May, Yutong exported 400 buses to the country, which at the time set an export record for a Chinese bus manufacturer. This record was broken in October by an order for 630 buses, then broken again in May 2007 by an export order for 5,348 buses. By 2017, Yutong had sold over 6,000 buses and coaches for service across Cuba.In November 2017, Yutong delivered Cuba's first electric bus, a Yutong E12, which entered service in the country's capital with the Havana Transit Company.
Spain
Ten Yutong ZK6140BD airside buses, equipped with six doors and capable of carrying 160 passengers, were delivered to Madrid Airport in April 2019.Portugal
Many buses have been ordered to Lisbon, such as the Flixbus coaches from Lisbon to Porto, and Carris Metropolitana routes, particularly the route 4602, from Barreiro to Alhos Vedros.United Kingdom
Yutong first entered the United Kingdom bus and coach market in 2014 through supplying diesel-powered coaches through Pelican Bus and Coach to independent coach operators.Yutong would become a major supplier of battery electric single-deck city buses to operators across England, Scotland and Wales through the Yutong E10 and the longer E12. Both buses are in service with a number of large operators, including McGill's Bus Services, the largest operator of Yutong buses in the United Kingdom, Newport Bus, Cardiff Bus, Go North East, Stagecoach Highlands, First West Yorkshire and Centrebus in Leicester. Yutong's battery electric TCe12 coach has also sold to a small number of coach operators across the United Kingdom, with Ember Core's fleet of TCe12s being used to operate a network of intercity express services across Scotland.
Yutong continued to expand its range of battery electric buses for UK operators from 2023 onwards, initially through launching the E9 midibus, with the first examples being delivered in early 2023 to Centrebus for the free Hop! bus service in Leicester. Two U11DD electric double-decker buses, based on similar buses sold in the Chinese and Singaporean markets, entered service as UK market demonstrators in late 2023, while National Express Coaches took delivery of a GTe14 tri-axle electric coach for trials on coach services between Victoria Coach Station and London Stansted Airport during March 2024.
In January 2026, concern was expressed by British security experts, following and investigation by the Department for Transport and the National Cyber Security Centre, that software updates delivered from China using onboard SIM cards could be used to stop or render inoperable some Yutong busses.
Malaysia
Public bus operator Handal Indah procured low-entry diesel Yutong ZK6118HGA, ZK6126HG, ZK6128HG and ZK6800HNGAA buses in huge quantities.Saudi Arabia
Following a trial of a Yutong ZK6772BEV at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, a Yutong E11, Saudi Arabia's first electric city bus, was delivered for service in Jeddah in March 2023, part of the Saudi Vision 2030 framework towards reducing the Kingdom's dependency on oil. 550 diesel-powered Yutong C13 PRO coaches for use in Riyadh and on intercity bus routes were subsequently delivered to the Saudi Public Transport Company over the course of 2023, with ten of these allocated to and specially upgraded for transporting members of the House of Saud.Singapore
In 2009, SMRT Buses received a Yutong ZK6126HGC diesel trial bus, marking it as the first China-made bus to be operated by a public transport operator in Singapore. Registered as SMB135E, the bus was permanently deployed on Route 854 until the end of its trial in 2010, after which no further purchases were made. Following the trial, SMB135E was deregistered, returned to the dealership, and re-registered as PH8811S under the private transport operator Bedok Transport. Bedok Transport subsequently deployed the bus on Scheme B Route 621.In 2018, as part of a small scale purchase of 60 electric buses, the Land Transport Authority of Singapore procured ten Yutong E12 battery electric single-deck buses as well as ten Yutong E12DD electric double-deck buses. The Yutong E12s entered service with Tower Transit Singapore, Go-Ahead Singapore and SMRT Buses in April 2020, initially deployed on routes 15, 66, 944, 983, and 990; while the Yutong E12DDs later entered service in October 2020 with the same operators. In December 2024, SMRT Buses moved their Yutong E12 and E12DD units from Tower Transit's Bulim Depot to its own Woodlands Depot, and redeployed the Yutong buses to Woodlands Town routes 904, 912M and 962. In May 2025, the new generation Yutong U12DD electric bus was launched in Zhengzhou, China.
Qatar
In preparation for the 2022 FIFA World Cup held in Qatar, 888 Yutong battery electric buses, an increase from an initial order of 741 made in 2020, were delivered to state-owned bus operator Mowasalat. Some of these buses, which operated shuttle services to and from football venues and subway stations over the course of the World Cup, were based in a purpose-built bus depot in Lusail that was described as the world's largest, with space to store and charge 478 electric buses, as well as hosting 24 ancillary buildings on the site.Yutong's involvement in the 2022 World Cup was followed by the signing of a memorandum of understanding in April 2023 between Yutong and Mowasalat, with the companies planning to co-operate on the development of electric commercial vehicles in Qatar.