The groundwork for the changeover was laid a couple of years ago after a visit from Alcoa’s Turkish distributor Otomotiv Lastikleri Tevzi AS (Oltas), who reportedly explained the benefits of Alcoa forged aluminium wheels. As a result, HAS decided to test the products themselves. 
“After several months, we realized that the buses, equipped with Alcoa wheels, use around 1% less fuel compared to buses on steel wheels. Another advantage we discovered is the longer lifetime of the tyres. Today almost all of our vehicles operating in Turkey are equipped with Alcoa wheels. All new vehicles are specified on Alcoa wheels as well.”
HAS has more than 300 buses, 150 of which are in Turkey. The others run in Russia, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Bulgaria. They also have 40 fully-owned service points. (Tyres & Accessories/Staffordshire, U.K.)
