Mercedes made in Serbia for Croats and Romanians

Experts from the German giant Mercedes left the production facilities of Zemun-based Ikarbus satisfied after finishing the inspection of the new bus model, the daily Novosti writes. This means that the joint product of the Stuttgart-based factory and the one in Zemun will soon be delivered to the first buyers, Ikarbus General Manager Aleksandar Vicentic told Novosti.

- In the next few days we expect to sign a very important agreement with the domestic company, but I cannot disclose the details yet - says Vicentic.

He says that the interest expressed by foreign companies is big because a Mercedes bus that is priced at about EUR 130,000 simply has no competition in its category.

Buyers from Croatia and Romania have had an additional request, which is to equip the bus with an Euro6 engine that will be mandatory for all EU countries as of next year, the general manager of Ikarbus explains.

- We've managed to solve this problem as well, so we expect the implementation of this project to start late this year - says Vicentic.

Aleksandar Vicentic has refused to give an estimate as to how many orders he expects to be placed for these buses by buyers from Croatia and Romania, but it is clear that new orders will be arriving all the time if Ikarbus manages to meet the delivery deadlines, the newspaper writes.

According to Novosti, the formation of new government in Belgrade and recent floods are the reasons why the talks are still ongoing between Ikarbus and the officials of the capital city and the Belgrade City Transportation Company (GSP) about changes to the city transportation regulations to allow the use of the buses that are not low floor.

People at Ikarbus expect the negotiations to be finished very soon and to have a positive outcome, which would allow them to start a larger serial production and hire all former 280 workers as well as 150 new ones.