July 24,2108-
Making clean running electric vehicles in the smog-filled Central Valley continues to make news – not just in Hanford but in Porterville.
The start-up company GreenPower Motors now has orders for 129 electric buses lined up to be made in Porterville says CEO Fraser Atkinson.”A year ago we had 10 orders.”
As of this month most of the new orders are not for the traditional large school buses we have heard about but a new product – smaller emission-free mini-buses that can handle 19 passengers. The customer base is large and varied.
“Right now, that’s our hot product” explains Atkinson, with demand coming from transit agencies, universities, airports and tour companies.
Canada-based GreenPower is still planning a 144,000sf factory near the airport in Porterville where they own land but have yet to break ground. They still expect to to be operation next year.
Now the company plans a second manufacturing facility, smaller and at a different location say Porterville City manager John Lollis.
“We expect them to make an announcement about that location in the next month or so” says Lollis.
That plant will be dedicated to making the mini-buses( EV STARS) and could be up and running in matter of months.Doing the full assembly in Porterville would qualify under the Buy America provision with expectation that that federal funds could be involved in future sales.The news come on the heels of GreenPower’s latest report to investors earlier in July announcing revenues in the latest quarter of $3.4 million and a gross profit of $1,168,225. They also announced a $2 million loan approval.
Earlier they announced orders for buses from LA Unified, the Port of Oakland, UCSF and a 3-year exclusive factory representative agreement with Creative Bus Sales, the U.S.’s largest bus dealer for sales, parts and service, including an initial order of 15 buses from GreenPower for their inventory: 5 EV-STARS (mini-buses) and 10 Synapse School Buses.
At a recent investor call this month, sales of the new mini-buses were discussed. “The Port of Oakland will be receiving their first EV Star, actually our first delivery next month and that’s a very small, well small for us, 25 foot long micro-bus, all battery electric for their shuttle that’s going to be used on the campus and terminal of the Port of Oakland. We’re also expecting two more buses to be delivered in September we’ve already got the order and the contract for those to UCSF that’s the University of California San Francisco and that’s for two shuttle buses to be used in downtown San Francisco again to shuttle San Francisco, UCSF students to and from their classes and various campuses.”
Helping the affordability of the product is funding approved through there state by CARB covering half the cost of the unit, $90,000 of the $180,000 price tag.
GreenPower leaders told investors on their call that battery prices and reliability are heading in the right direction.”…battery prices are coming down between 15% to 20% year over year, battery performance and energy density is increasing by 15% to 20% year over year giving us a net effect of 25% to 35% battery improvement at the blended cost and energy density year-over-year. What that means for us in our industry and for GreenPower specifically is that battery electric buses will be the dominant technology. We expect the dominant technology sold in the U.S. by 2025, the buses will be able to go as far as their diesel counterparts and they will cost the same to buy as a diesel counterpart producing zero emissions and having a less cost of ownership right away and to the life of it.”
Meanwhile GreenPower is continuing the shipping of full size buses to the City of Porterville who has ordered 10 with five already delivered.