1982 Low-floor buses finally asserted themselves on the public transport market. In line with this NEOPLAN started to design and produce standardised city buses which are still being built to this day as "Centroliner" buses.
1985 Gottlob Auwärter GmbH & Co. KG celebrated its 50th anniversary.
1987 The original NEOPLAN plant in Stuttgart was expanded yet again in 1987. The new delivery hall 1 was built with a representative entrance area and generously dimensioned office tract. The building has an impressive façade of steel and glass, a stylistic element that was later to characterise other NEOPLAN buildings. At the same time production procedures were reorganised to keep the distances in the material flow short. The repair department moved to the old delivery hall 6. In the following years the new organisation was optimised further, particularly in 1993, when minor building projects and reorganisation shortened the distances in production again.
Metroliner in carbon design
1988 A world premiere – under this motto NEOPLAN invited guests to Stuttgart on 25th May 1988. And the company hadn't promised too much – a completely new bus concept was presented in Möhringen: the first full monocoque bus in the world which no longer needed any supporting chassis or skeleton. This carbon design vehicle was made as a complete cell entirely of plastic. The exterior of the new NEOPLAN, which was given the name Metroliner, was just as futuristic as the concept as a whole. The Metroliner's low weight made it ideal for alternative drive systems such as hybrid or fuel cell concepts.
1990 Expansion of Gottlob Auwärter GmbH & Co. KG continued apace. Another plant was opened in Eastern Germany: the NEOPLAN Plant V in Ehrenhain. Thanks to the rapid cooperation between the Auwärter and Hiller/Kratzsch families production of the intercity Transliner was able to commence in February 1990.
1991 One year later NEOPLAN celebrated the official opening of a new plant in Plauen, Vogtland too. The fall of the Berlin Wall favoured more extensive cooperation models for NEOPLAN and the renowned Vogtländische Maschinenfabrik AG. NEOPLAN Omnibus GmbH Plauen was accordingly founded on 12th December 1991. NEOPLAN Stuttgart owned 76 % of the shares in the new company, the other 24 % being held by the three executives, who also acted as plant managers. Today the plant, which is constantly being expanded, serves as the central body structure plant within the NEOPLAN Group.
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