GreenPower to build electric school buses in West Virginia

GreenPower Motor, a North American manufacturer of electric commercial vehicles, has acquired a production facility in South Charleston in the US state of West Virginia. GreenPower plans to manufacture electric school buses there from the second half of 2022.

Under the terms of the agreement, the state of West Virginia has committed to purchase at least US$15 million (€13 million) worth of electric school buses produced at the plant. There is already a 7,400 square metre building on the nearly 38,000 square metre site where production will be set up.

According to the announcement, the deal is a combined lease/purchase agreement. Monthly payments will begin nine months after the start of production, which is expected to be during 2023. Once the lease payments reach $6.7 million, ownership of the property will be transferred to GreenPower.

With the West Virginia plant, GreenPower, whose corporate headquarters is in Vancouver, Canada, intends to serve the US states east of the Mississippi. Until now, the company has manufactured its US vehicles in Porterville, California. In addition to the electric school bus, GreenPower offers three other electric buses as well as a total of six variants of an electric Class 4 utility vehicle – from a chassis to a panel van to a minibus.

prnewswire.com, greenpowermotor.com (vehicle models)