A new PESA strategy with a 2025+ perspective

The company focuses on product development, new technologies and foreign expansion. It wants the vehicles it produces to meet the demand for low-emission transport and to be “hydrogen ready”.

Recently, PESA has been acquiring new orders and gaining new foreign markets. After contracts with Ceskie Draha and Iasi, it won tenders for the delivery of trams for Sofia and Slovak Kosice, and on Monday it signed a contract with the Romanian Craiova. At the same time, as planned, it is producing the ordered vehicles for Koleje Dolnośląskie, Małopolskie, the Czech RegioJet, and trams for Silesia, Toruń and Iasi.

PESA has started implementing a new strategy – it has launched investments, implements innovative technologies and starts the production of trams, locomotives and vehicles as part of the new Regio160 platform, which is to be a response to the zero-emission transport needs resulting from the implementation of the Green Deal. The experience gained in the past, supported by cooperation with strategic technological partners, is to guarantee the company stable development, foreign expansion and strengthening its leading position among domestic manufacturers of rail vehicles.

PESA’s strategy with the 2025+ perspective assumes, among others, the development of new technologies and strong IT tools, cost optimisation of current products, reconstruction of the Group’s business and organisational model; consolidation of the support function, building a profitable “Aftersale” segment, development of the Regio 160 vehicle platform and gaining competences for the production of trains at speeds above 200 km / h. All this is to help the company strengthen its position as the leader of the domestic market and expand into new foreign markets.

At the moment, PESA is producing emu ELF2  for Koleje Małopolskie and Koleje Dolnośląskie, a new emu 654  vehicle for the Czech carrier Regio Jet, dmu Link for NEB and new generation vehicles with ecological Stage V engines for Ceskie Drahy, Gama locomotives for RCP, Pol Miedź Trans PCC Intermodal and trams for Silesia, Toruń and Romanian Iasi. On Monday, a company signed a tram contract for another city in Romania – Craiova.

“The fact that we deliver vehicles on time that our customers are satisfied with is the result of changes introduced in all areas. We have improved direct relations with carriers,  we have adapted vehicle designs to customer needs,  we have restored good relations with suppliers and co-operators, we have started a technological breakthrough in production focus on robotisation and automation, we reliably and manage financial processes and settlements. All this creates a new image of PESA.” – emphasized Krzysztof Zdziarski,  PESA CEO.

PESA definitely focuses on low-emission vehicles. The most important project implemented into production is the Regio160 platform. Its main assumption is one standard construction, which, by modularity of the body, allows to configure vehicles with different drives and interiors adapted to the carrier’s needs.

Various types of vehicles have been designed as part of the Regio160 Platform – EMU powered by traction, EMU with an additional battery or, for example, EMU powered by traction and a hydrogen cell, which can be used both on electrified and no traction lines.. Projects related to hydrogen propulsion will also be consistently developed – a shunting locomotive powered by hydrogen cells will be presented at TRAKO, and the experience gathered during its production will be used in the already started work on a hydrogen passenger vehicle.

PESA is the only Polish manufacturer with experience in the construction of double-deck vehicles, and will work on a new generation push pulls, dedicated to both linter-city and regional connections. It seems to be very promising market for the company. 

PESA is also preparing to produce vehicles with speeds above 200 km / h. The company will implement these projects with external partners, and it does not exclude cooperation with suppliers of ready-made solutions or technologies, as well as with manufacturers of rolling stock.

 “We are establishing cooperation with other technological partners, including foreign ones, who have experience in, among others, the implementation of high-speed rail projects or the implementation of hydrogen technologies. This openness to cooperation and building competences for the future thanks to partnership is one of the changes in PESA’s approach to development. We have gained a lot of experience in the production of rail vehicles, we have a team of very good specialists, we set ourselves new goals, but we approach them with humility ”. – stressed Krzysztof Zdziarski, PESA CEO

In the coming years, the company also wants to strengthen its position as a tram manufacturer – this is confirmed by orders obtained recently, including from Romania, or the tenders won in Sofia and Slovak Kosice. Expansion into other European markets is to be possible thanks to the new tram, which will be based on a single structure and will provide the possibility of modular design of the interior and equipment.

The company’s portfolio will be complemented by locomotives within the developed Gama family – they will be a two-drive locomotive (electric-diesel), an electric locomotive with an auxiliary engine and a multi-system locomotive / 3kV, 15 kV and 25 kV /, which is to move at a speed of up to 200 km / h.

PESA has already started a consolidation within the Group, in addition to the ZNTK Mińsk Mazowiecki plants, domestic and foreign branches providing maintenance and service are to be established within a few years, which are to have a significant share in the group’s revenues.

The strategy is implemented on the basis of partial goals within 16 strategic projects and planned in detail for the next five years.

“PESA, as the largest domestic producer of rolling stock, thanks to a stable investor, PFR SA, can focus today on developing modern technologies and new vehicles that meet the needs of passengers, industry and environmental requirements. Examples are hydrogen-powered locomotives or regional vehicles that will be put into service in the near future. I believe that the implementation of this strategy will contribute to the company’s development, making it the largest producer of modern rolling stock in Central and Eastern Europe, ” said Paweł Borys, President of the Polish Development Found

The coming weeks will be very busy for the PESA Group – the company starts deliveries of vehicles for Koleje Małopolskie or trams for Iasi, and tests of the emu 654 unit for Regio Jet, which will be the first dual-voltage vehicle to work on international lines. 654 Regio Jet and the hydrogen locomotive PESA will have their premiere at the TRAKO fair in Gdańsk in September.