GML expects to deliver 140 electric school buses to the US

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 6 -- Gemilang International Ltd (GML), a leading bus and bus body manufacturer in Asia, expects to deliver 140 units of electric school buses to California, United States (US) this year.

The move is part of its mission to promote the adoption of environmentally-friendly solutions for buses and bus bodies, GML said in a statement today.

Chairman and chief executive officer, Pang Chong Yong said the order for 120 units of 12-metre (m) school buses and 20 units of 7.5m school buses, was remarkable not just because of the company’s breakthrough in the US market, but also because it was the largest quantity in a single order of electric vehicle (EV) buses that the company has received.

“In fact, GML has been supplying bus bodies for various EV makers such as BYD Auto and CRRC Electric Vehicle Ltd to several markets, including Malaysia, Singapore and Australia since 2015.

“We expect more countries to catch up with the transition to EV as an increasing number of climate change mitigation commitments have been announced by governments around the globe,” he said.

The Hong Kong-listed company has been supplying EV buses to the US since 2016 while the market was still predominantly using fossil fuel-powered vehicles.

Pang said the EV school bus market in the US was enormous, with exponential growth aspects following the recently-announced Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) by US President Joe Biden, committing US$2.5 billion to buy electric school buses for districts around the country.

“With the new plan to convert 500,000 US school buses to zero-emission vehicles, we are confident of capturing more market share with our three decades of industry experience, as well as our main competitive advantage – aluminium lightweight superstructure,” he said. 

GML’s notable projects include the Iskandar Malaysia Bus Rapid Transit, Sarawak’s first electric city bus for Kuching Metro, and an electric bus pilot project by the Sabah government for public transportation.

It has also been supplying aluminium buses for Go KL, Rapid KL, Rapid Penang and Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) feeder buses over the last 13 years.

-- BERNAMA