Gemilang International Limited(GML) – an Asia-leading bus and bus body manufacturer, is expected to deliver 140 units of fully-electric school buses to California, USA in 2022, as it continues to drive its mission to promote the adoption of environmentally-friendly solutions for buses and bus bodies.
Based in Johor, GML has designed and manufactured bus bodies, and assembled buses for over 30 years. Its notable projects recently include the Iskandar Malaysia Bus Rapid Transit (IMBRT), Sarawak’s 1st electric city bus for Kuching Metro, and an electric bus pilot project by the Sabah government for public transport.
GML has also been supplying aluminium buses for Go KL, Rapid KL, Rapid Penang and MRT feeder buses for the last 13 years.
The Hong Kong listed company (Stock Code: 6163.HK) said it has been supplying EV buses to the USA since 2016, while the market was still predominantly using fossil fuel powered vehicles.
“In fact, GML has been supplying bus bodies for various EV makers such as BYD and CRRC to several markets including Malaysia, Singapore, Australia since 2015, and 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,” said Mr. Pang Chong Yong, Chairman and CEO of GML.
He further added that the order of 120 units of 12m-length school buses and 20 units of 7.5m-length school buses was remarkable not just because it was a breakthrough for the US market, but it is also the largest quantity from a single order of EV buses that the company has ever received.
Mr Pang highlighted that the EV school bus market in the US is enormous with exponential growth aspect. This is a result of the recently-announced Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) which was signed into law by US President Joe Biden, committing $2.5 billion (approx. RM10.5 billion) to buy electric school buses for districts around the US.
“With the new plan to convert all 500,000 US school buses to zero emission vehicles, we are confident to capture more market share with our 3 decades of industry experience as well as our main competitive advantage – aluminium lightweight superstructure,” he added.
GML focuses on building environmentally-friendly bus and bus bodies, and have been using aluminium body solutions for more than 20 years.
“The lightweight, corrosion-free technology originates from Switzerland and has been proven by our customers from more than 15 markets around the world. Usually, our buses last longer and are deemed to be safer than steel-bodied counterparts, and I am pleased that this has helped us to expand our footprint in the US market,” concluded Mr Pang.
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