Gemilang International Limited (GML), Asia’s leading bus manufacturer in Johor is expected to send 140 units of fully electric school buses to California, United States (US) this year. The move will promote the use of environmentally friendly solutions for buses and bus bodies. GML has designed and manufactured bus bodies, in addition to assembling buses for over 30 years.
As reported by Berita Harian, its recent notable projects include the Iskandar Malaysia Bus Line Transit (IMBRT), Sarawak’s first electric city bus for Metro Kuching and an electric bus pilot project by the Sabah government for public transport. It has also supplied aluminium buses for Go KL, Rapid KL, Rapid Penang bus operators and MRT shuttle buses for the past 13 years. GML chairman and chief executive officer Pang Chong Yong said the Hong Kong-listed company has been supplying electric buses (EVs) to the US since 2016, although the market still uses fossil-fuel-powered vehicles. He elaborated,
“GML has been supplying bus bodies to various EV manufacturers such as BYD and CRRC to be marketed to several markets including Malaysia, Singapore, Australia since 2015. We expect more countries to follow the transition to EVs as an increase in climate commitments that have been announced by governments around the world.”
Chong Yong said the order for 120 12-meter school buses and another 20 7.5-meter-long units was remarkable not only because it was a success for the US market, but it also involved the largest quantity of an EV bus order he had ever received. He also explained that the EV school bus market in the US is huge with potential growth aspects. This is a result of the recently announced Bipartisan Infrastructure Agreement (Infrastructure Investment and Employment Act) which was signed into law by US President Joe Biden, allocating US $ 2.5 billion (about RM10.5 billion) to buy electric school buses for counties around the US.
GML focuses on building environmentally friendly bus and bus bodies, besides having been using aluminium body solutions for more than 20 years and the lightweight, corrosion-free technology comes from Switzerland and has been proven by their customers from over 15 markets around the world.
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