Designline is a bus and coach manufacturer based in Ashburton, New Zealand. Designline was founded in Ashburton in 1985, as a manufacturer of tour coaches. It diversified into city buses in the early 1990s, and then to hybrid city buses in the late 1990s. It was acquired by American interests in 2006, and DesignLine International's headquarters is in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Designline is best known for its hybrid buses, running on battery power and with a small gas turbine engine and generator to keep the battery charged. Originally designed as a response to the international tender for ecological buses to be used in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the design was rated as technically best but did not win the tender.
These vehicles were introduced in 1998 on the Shuttle zero-fare inner-city bus in Christchurch, New Zealand, first as diesel hybrids, and then as gas-turbine hybrids in 2000. After trials in Japan in conjunction with The Tokyo Electric Power Company, they have found export markets in Japan (2003), Hong Kong (2003), and England (2004). A similar model is currently testing in New York City in 2007.