The company was founded in Mississauga in 1975 as
Ontario Bus and Truck, Inc., It was renamed
Ontario Bus Industries (OBI) in 1977 and introduced its first prototype bus in 1978, under the model name Orion I. A U.S.
subsidiary named
Bus Industries of America, wholly owned by Ontario Bus Industries, was incorporated in 1981 in
Oriskany, New York, to serve the U.S. market. OBI was taken over by the Ontario Government in 1994 for loan arrears; by that time, the Mississauga plant only had 165 employees. The $81 million investment, which consisted of forgiving $66M in loans and an additional $15M investment, was criticized by
Monte Kwinter as "a total disaster". It was sold in 1995 to Western Star Truck Holdings of
Kelowna for $35M, which also acquired OBI subsidiary Bus Industries of America, and Western Star adopted a new, single name for both companies,
Orion Bus Industries. In 2006, Orion Bus Industries became part of the
DaimlerChrysler Commercial Buses North America as a subsidiary of Daimler. On April 25, 2012, the company announced it would stop taking orders for new buses, and the Mississauga and Oriskany plants would close once outstanding orders were fulfilled. The closure took union officials by surprise;
CAW had just signed a one-year extension on April 1 for the Mississauga plant. It was announced that more than 530 workers would be laid off in the Mississauga and Oriskany plants. A
Wildcat strike happened in May 2012. New Flyer assumed some outstanding orders with Orion for New York City Transit and King County Metro. until
New Flyer acquired that business from Daimler Buses in 2013. The New York location also performed repairs, including a retrofit program with
BAE Systems for recalled hybrid-electric buses using BAE's HybriDrive system, until it was refitted as an assembly facility for New Flyer buses. The sales and closures were part of the closure of Daimler Buses North America; only Daimler's imported
Setra buses continued to be marketed in North America although distribution rights were taken over by
Motor Coach Industries (MCI) in exchange for a minority stake in MCI. and the Setra distribution rights lasted until January 2018, when the
REV Group took over distribution. Setra became part of the newly renamed Daimler Coaches North America in January 2020 when Daimler once again distributed Setra coaches. == Product lineup ==