Dive Brief:
- ABC Cos., which sells and services motor coaches, shuttle buses and passenger vans, plans to manufacture 35-foot and 40-foot transit buses in the U.S., it announced Monday at the American Public Transportation Association conference.
- VinFast, a Vietnam-based vehicle manufacturer, also announced at the conference that it will bring its electric buses to the U.S. by 2028.
- The two moves come amid a strong demand for transit buses in North America, which has created a backlog of orders leading to long delivery times for transit agencies.
Dive Insight:
The U.S. transit bus industry has undergone supply chain shortages, tariffs and the loss of two manufacturers in recent years. “There's a high demand in the market right now, and I think we'll be able to fill it,” ABC Chief Commercial Officer John Walsh told Smart Cities Dive. “It should help delivery times.”
Walsh said ABC expects its new Cor Transit heavy-duty transit bus manufacturing operation to make its first deliveries in 2028.
Although the company hasn’t selected where it will locate its manufacturing facility, the bus will meet the applicable requirements of the Build America Buy America Act for transit agencies relying on federal grants, it said.
“The goal is to develop a product that the transit agencies will understand,” said ABC Vice President, Transit Division, Michael Ammann. Further, “we want to have an inviting vehicle for people to get into,” Ammann said. He described the vehicle’s interior as “calming,” with ambient lighting and a “European feel”. The bus is designed to accommodate a wheelchair ramp at the front door, center door or both, and it will have a wide aisle, he said.
Walsh said the company designed the bus “from the ground up” with the needs of service technicians and the bus operator in mind. For example, he said that bus driver safety partitions can reduce airflow in the operator’s compartment. To address that problem, “Our bus will be standard with a driver's air conditioning system” that also helps defog the window and circulate air on warm days, Ammann said.
The first Cor Transit vehicles will be diesel-powered, but the company plans to offer other powertrains in the future, he said.
VinFast plans to bring its electric buses to the U.S. through a collaboration with NexMove Certified, a joint venture of Transportation Management Services and EV charging infrastructure provider Zeem Solutions. The companies plan to offer the vehicles along with charging, maintenance and operations in a single purchase agreement, they said in a press release.
The vehicles, to be manufactured in Vietnam, will not meet Buy America requirements, Robert Hill, VinFast vice president, electric bus sales, U.S., told Smart Cities Dive at the conference. They will come with a 15-year warranty, he said.
