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Orion International was a North American bus manufacturer based in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. The company had its main manufacturing plant in Mississauga and sent bus body shells to their plant in Oriskany, New York, for final assembly and testing of vehicles destined for U.S. markets.

The company was founded by Arnold Wollschlaeger in 1974 as Ontario Bus and Truck Incorporated, who introduced the Orion bus to market in 1976. The company was renamed Ontario Bus Industries (OBI) in 1977. It expanded operations to the United States in 1981, founding a wholly owned subsidiary named Bus Industries of America. At its peak OBI employed over 1,200 workers in the Mississauga plant.

After falling into arrears on loans provided by the Government of Ontario the government took over operation of the company in 1994. Subsequently it was sold to Western Star Truck Holdings in 1995, which consolidated the names of OBI and its Bus Industries of America subsidiary to Orion Bus Industries. In 2000, Western Star was purchased by a division of DaimlerChrysler, and in 2006, Orion was absorbed into DaimlerChrysler Commercial Buses North America. It was renamed Ontario Bus Industries (OBI) in 1977 and introduced its first prototype bus in 1978, under the model name Orion I. A U.S. subsidiary named Bus Industries of America, wholly owned by Ontario Bus Industries, was incorporated in 1981 in Oriskany, New York, to serve the U.S. market. OBI was taken over by the Ontario Government in 1994 for loan arrears; by that time, the Mississauga plant only had 165 employees. The $81&nbsp;million investment, which consisted of forgiving $66M in loans and an additional $15M investment, was criticized by Monte Kwinter as "a total disaster". It was sold in 1995 to Western Star Truck Holdings of Kelowna for $35M, which also acquired OBI subsidiary Bus Industries of America, and Western Star adopted a new, single name for both companies, Orion Bus Industries. In 2006, Orion Bus Industries became part of the DaimlerChrysler Commercial Buses North America as a subsidiary of Daimler.

On April 25, 2012, the company announced it would stop taking orders for new buses, and the Mississauga and Oriskany plants would close once outstanding orders were fulfilled. The closure took union officials by surprise; CAW had just signed a one-year extension on April 1 for the Mississauga plant. It was announced that more than 530 workers would be laid off in the Mississauga and Oriskany plants. A Wildcat strike happened in May 2012. New Flyer assumed some outstanding orders with Orion for New York City Transit and King County Metro. until New Flyer acquired that business from Daimler Buses in 2013. The New York location also performed repairs, including a retrofit program with BAE Systems for recalled hybrid-electric buses using BAE's HybriDrive system, until it was refitted as an assembly facility for New Flyer buses.

The sales and closures were part of the closure of Daimler Buses North America; only Daimler's imported Setra buses continued to be marketed in North America although distribution rights were taken over by Motor Coach Industries (MCI) in exchange for a minority stake in MCI. and the Setra distribution rights lasted until January 2018, when the REV Group took over distribution. Setra became part of the newly renamed Daimler Coaches North America in January 2020 when Daimler once again distributed Setra coaches.

Product lineup

Orion manufactured a number of different models of buses over its 37-year existence. A list of models is given below; each increasing number is the next generation model.

Most buses today in service are of the Orion V or VII models. Orion also marketed the Thomas Dennis SLF 200 mid-sized bus.

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{| class="wikitable"

|-

! colspan="2" | Model

! Length & Width

! Picture

! Produced

! Fuel type

! Refs

|-

! colspan="2" |Orion I

|

|200px

|1977–1993

|rowspan=2|

  • Diesel
  • Compressed natural gas

|

|-

! colspan="2" |Orion II

|

|200px

|1983–2003

|

|-

! colspan="2" |Orion III<br/>Orion-Ikarus 286

| •

| 200px|An Orion-Ikarus (Orion III) on display at Expo 86

|1984–1989

|Diesel

|

|-

! colspan="2" |Orion IV

|

  • Tractor: •
  • Trailer: •

|200px

|1985–1989

|

  • Liquefied petroleum gas

|

|-

! colspan="2" |Orion V

|

|200px

|1989–2009

|

  • Diesel
  • Compressed natural gas

|

|-

! colspan="2" |Orion VI

| •

|200px

|1995–2004

|rowspan=4|

  • Diesel
  • Compressed natural gas
  • Diesel-electric hybrid

|

|-

!rowspan=3|Orion VII

!OG

|rowspan=3|

|200px

|2001–2007

|

|-

!NG

|frameless|200x200px

|2007–2011

|

|-

!EPA10<br>(3G)

|200px

|2010-2013

|

|}

;Notes

See also

  • Crown-Ikarus 286, similar to the Orion-Ikarus III bus

References

  • Orion Buses
  • Educated » Hybrid Sounds
  • Crown Ikarus 286

Hybrid buses

  • Hybrid buses.
  • &nbsp;