Fodens developing louble-deck chassis
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)y CM reporter
'ODENS — the Cheshire ruck maker which has ought Government aid to )vercome liquidity problems — is currently developing a ear-engined, double-deck aus chassis, chairman Bill 7oden told CM this week. 7oden has a contract with >ne of Britain's best known )assenger bodybuilders to levelop the chassis, a protoype of which could be .unning in 12 months' time. It is understood that the bus project is still in the initial design phase, but selected operators have been consulted already. Although a prototype is to be built — a special team is working on it exclusively at Fodens — no final commitment has been made to go into production. A go-ahead will depend upon the availability of major components and the decision will be taken by the bodybuilder which initiated the project.
Mr Foden says that in the current recession the company does not expect to reduce truck production to less than the 30 vehicles-aweek economic minimum. Additional manufacturing capacity might be used to build a bus chassis, a business not new to Fodens which still builds a few export bus chassis.