Ukrainian couple builds off-road bus

Typically, buses drive around cities and don’t raise any eyebrows as they ply their routes. But this bus is the complete opposite: it dwells off road, and it’s hard to miss when it approaches.

Called the Praetorian, this vehicle can climb mountains, get through mud, rocks, sand, snow and ice, all while carrying a couple of dozen people. Only a few companies make vehicles like this worldwide, and so the creators of Praetorian believe there is demand and see a niche to fill.

The off-road bus comes in over 20 different types suited for specific industries such as mining, disaster and emergency response, expeditions, and ski resorts. For example, it can be an ambulance vehicle that can fit up to 12 wounded patients, a camper for travelling, or just an all-terrain passenger bus.

Behind the idea of the four-wheel-drive vehicle are Ukrainian husband and wife team, Vakhtang Dzukashvili and Yuliya Khomich. With 10 years of experience in the automotive industry as intermediary sellers of heavy cars, they know there’s demand for their Praetorian. So they decided to launch a company called Torsus to make them.

Dzukashvili says that when customers need a vehicle to transport large groups of people to hard-to-reach areas — for example, in order to transport workers every day to a mine — they have no choice but to buy a couple of pickup trucks.

“Our bus seats up to 35 people, giving all of them a comfortable lift to places where few can get to,” Dzukashvili said. “I sense that we’ve got an opportunity to make something that will be in demand across all latitudes and longitudes. We should seize it.”

The couple believes they can get rich with the Praetorian. One machine will cost around $100,000, a price that Dzukashvili describes as “creative.” Eventually, the price will depend on the vehicle’s type and interior equipment, he said.

And though it sounds expensive — since $100,000 is about as much as four 4×4 pickups cost — the bus is competitive because it fits more people; fares will cover the cost of a driver and maintenance work, Dzukashvili believes.

The bus is currently being certified in the European Union. Its makers claim this is going to be the first “off-road bus” in the EU’s registers. “We invented the concept, it seems,” Khomich said.

Currently it takes five months to build a bus, but the couple is working on expanding their company’s site in Slovakia to create a full-scale manufacturing site to speed up the process. They aim to assemble 600 Praetorians a year, whereas today they only create prototypes.

For them, Slovakia is convenient, as it’s in the European Union yet not too expensive: cheap parts, no borders within the union, high standards, and a stable currency.

Setting an example

“But our brain-center is in Ukraine,” said Khomich, as Torsus’ headquarters are in Kyiv. “We can set an example… show that one can create a quality product in Europe working from Ukraine.”

Dzukashvili supports his wife: “Ford Motor Company headquarters in Detroit – It manufactures cars in Mexico and sells them in the United Arab Emirates. And Ford remains American.”

However, once they refine the manufacturing processes, clarifying them and writing them down step by step, Torsus can potentially outsource the assembly stage to a Ukrainian plant. Thus, if there’s a sales spike and 600 buses aren’t enough, they can manufacture extra vehicles in Ukraine to meet a surge in demand.

Dzukashvili says that they would consider a Ukrainian plant because of the country’s “potential” and “smart people.” He didn’t specify which plant they would use, but the country only has eight firms that assemble cars. Zaporizhia Automobile Building Plant, Bogdan Corporation, and JSC Eeurocar are the biggest of them.

In addition, most of these plants are idle, as car manufacturing plunged in Ukraine after 2014 because of the economic and political crisis.

Meanwhile, the couple is collecting pre-orders and is selling its first prototypes. Three of their ambulance-type buses are already in possession of the National Guard of Ukraine.

Torsus is now receiving pre-orders from all over the world: Canada, Chile, Peru, South Africa, Australia, Dubai, Israel, Portugal, Poland, and China. There are also potential U.S. clients, but without U.S. certification, the company won’t be able to enter that market.

“The U.S. is the center of automotive civilization. We hope to get there, but later,” Dzukashvili said.

There are orders from Russia, but the Ukrainians will never work with the aggressor state as Russia’s war against Ukraine has taken the lives of at least 10,300 people. “Russia wages war upon our country,” explained Dzukashvili. “We’ve never even used any parts from Russia, though we know some Ukrainian plants that do that.”

In total, eight Praetorians have been assembled so far. The company expects its first big orders to come in the middle of 2019.

The Kyiv Post’s technology coverage is sponsored by Ciklum and NIX Solutions. The content is independent of the donors.