50 Karsan Atak Buses Equipped with Allison Fully Automatic Transmissions Bring Novelty to Ankara's Public Transportation

50 diesel Karsan Atak 8-meter buses, equipped with Allison fully automatic transmissions have been purchased by the Metropolitan Municipality of Ankara Public Transportation Authority for more efficient operations with their constantly improving public transportation services.

ANKARA, Turkey, February 2021 – Offering modern public transportation solutions in the global and local markets, especially in Europe, thanks to its research and development (R&D) and production capabilities, Turkish bus manufacturer Karsan supports the development of transportation infrastructure in many cities with its wide product range. Recently, Karsan delivered 50 units of 8-meter Atak buses equipped with Allison fully automatic transmissions, in line with the Metropolitan Municipality of Ankara's fleet renewal project. These buses will provide higher quality transportation in the city.

"Besides our presence in the global arena, particularly Europe with public transportation solutions that facilitate life, we also contribute to urban transportation all around Turkey. Our diesel Atak buses in the 8-meter segment have cutting edge technology and high-performance engine features as well as great maneuverability and a lower ground clearance that makes getting on and off the vehicle easier,” said Muzaffer Arpacıoğlu, Deputy General Manager for Domestic Sales and Foreign Relations at Karsan. “Our technology is environmentally friendly with its low emission rate and provides ease and comfort in public transportation thanks to its multiple comfort features. Municipality fleets especially prefer fully automatic transmissions. This allows them to standardize driving behaviors of different drivers, hence improving the efficiency and reliability of the fleet."

The new Karsan Atak buses for Ankara are equipped with Allison T 2100™ fully automatic transmissions and 186 hp, 4.5 liters NEF4 turbo diesel FPT engines with 680 Nm torque capacity. The Allison T 2100™ fully automatic transmission offers multiple advantages such as comfort, fuel economy and lower operating cost for bus enterprises. Thanks to Allison’s Continuous Power Technology™ with torque converter, Allison fully automatic transmissions smoothly increase the engine torque allowing the transfer of more power to the wheels. Thanks to these features, perfect acceleration and full-power shifts are available, while enhanced maneuverability in narrow roads increases the driver and passenger comfort.

"Contrary to the manual and automated manual transmissions (AMT) with mechanic clutches that cause wear, Allison fully automatic transmissions require only periodic fluid and filter changes to maintain peak performance. Therefore, very little wear occurs in the whole drive train, said Burak Kazar, Allison Transmission Area Sales and OEM Account Manager. “Since Allison fully automatic transmissions don’t need costly and time-consuming clutch repairs and replacements that are necessary in manual and AMT technologies, the maintenance requirement reduces. As a result, vehicles with fully automatic transmissions offer lower operating costs in total service life span. And this is just another reason for public transportation authorities to prefer Allison transmissions."

In public transportation, the authorities attach a great importance on the comfort of passengers as well as the drivers on urban roads that involves narrow streets and require frequent starts and stops. Thanks to fully automatic transmissions, drivers can just focus on the road because they do not have to shift. This feature allows a more controlled and safe drive hence increasing the passenger comfort and reduced fatigue.

"At Allison the leading technologies we develop allow us to contribute to the operational efficiency of bus authorities all around the world. Allison fully automatic transmissions provide various benefits such as higher performance for drivers, comfortable and smooth transportation for passengers and lower maintenance costs for fleets,” said Berk Gönenç, Allison Transmission OEM Account Manager. “We are delighted to see that the unique performance offered by Allison in 7-8-meter-long buses is now contributing to Karsan Atak buses as well. We believe that the Metropolitan Municipality of Ankara will be satisfied with their vehicles equipped with Allison fully automatic transmissions which provide a more flexible operation capability within the 8-meter-long bus segment.”

10 Feb, 2022