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Neoplan Bus GmbH is a German automotive company that manufactures buses, and coaches. It became a subsidiary of MAN Truck & Bus SE in 2001.
Both Albrecht and Lee joined Neoplan after graduating from university. Albrecht took over management of the company in 1965, and Bob Lee later became head of Engineering and Design.
In 1964, the founder's second son, Konrad Auwärter, developed a double-deck bus design for a service bus as part of his dissertation. The "Do-Bus" design had low weight, and could carry over 100 passengers. It also featured a low-frame front axle with forward-mounted steering gear that permitted a low, flat floor. The double-deck principle was applied to the coach design, creating a high-capacity, comfortable touring vehicle. This vehicle was known as the Neoplan Skyliner.
A second manufacturing facility opened in Pilsting in 1973, and a third opened in Kumasi, Ghana in December 1974 to support increasing orders.
Several more plants were added in the 1980s, including two in the United States. The United States plants were later spun off into a separate, and now defunct, independent company (Neoplan USA) that used the Neoplan name under licence. Chinese production started in 1986, originally producing North brand Neoplan buses via companies under the Norinco umbrella: this was spun off into a separate joint venture with Youngman.
The Starliner was introduced in 1996, and would go on to win the Bus of the Year award for two consecutive years – in 1998 and 1999.
In 1999 the company unveiled a prototype fuel cell bus. In 2001, Neoplan, or correctly, "Gottlob Auwärter GmbH & Co KG" was acquired by MAN SE subsidiary MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG to form Neoman Bus GmbH. The Starliner won the Bus of the Year award for two more consecutive years in 2001 and 2002.
In 2008, the Gottlob Auwärter Museum was opened in Stuttgart, opposite the headquarters of Stuttgarter Straßenbahnen AG.
On 1 February 2008, Neoman Bus GmbH was fully integrated into the bus division of the larger MAN Nutzfahrzeuge Group, and ceased to exist in its own right. Neoplan and MAN Truck & Bus began operating as two separate but integrated marques of MAN Nutzfahrzeuge Group.
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