BYD to manufacture 1,000 electric buses a year in the U.S.
May 30, 2013 Category Automotive, Automotive Metals & Minerals
BYD, the first Chinese-owned vehicle manufacturer producing in the United States, has unveiled ambitious plans to eventually build as many as 1,000 plug-in electric buses a year at a refurbished RV manufacturing plant in the Mojave Desert city of Lancaster in LA County, California. BYD purchased a former Rexhall Industries RV factory for its electric-bus manufacturing operations. Rexhall CEO William Rex will stay on as General Manager of the newly formed BYD Coach and Bus. A number of Rexhall employees will be maintained as the plant shifts to new ownership. Senior Vice President Stella Li said the first of 10 zero-pollution vehicles, already on order from the city of Long Beach, should roll off the assembly line next year. Within two years, Li said, BYD Motors expects to be producing 50 buses a year, and it will continue to ramp up production, hoping to reach the plant’s capacity of 1,000 buses a year within a decade or two. All the buses will be powered by the company’s own iron-phosphate batteries, which will be made at another plant near the bus factory in Lancaster, 100 kilometers east of Los Angeles. BYD is the world’s largest maker of rechargeable batteries. It was the first time a Chinese vehicle company is to open a vehicle manufacturing plant in the United States. BYD has invested more than USD10 million in the two plants. When the vehicle plant reaches full production, it could employ as many as 1,000 people. BYD’s North American headquarters in Los Angeles now employs about 40 people but will also grow with the bus production, Li said. Building vehicles in the U.S. enables BYD’s customers to take advantage of the federal government’s “Buy America” subsidies to support domestic production, the China Daily reports.
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