GreenPower Motor Company Inc., a manufacturer and distributor of purpose-built, all-electric, zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, has delivered the first Type D BEAST electric school bus manufactured at the company’s South Charleston, West Virginia, manufacturing plant to the Kanawha County (W.V.) School District.
“Today marks yet another milestone for GreenPower in the all-electric school bus market as the first BEAST manufactured in West Virginia gets delivered,” says Fraser Atkinson, GreenPower CEO. “Last December, the first four Nano BEASTs manufactured at the facility were delivered, and this delivery is the next step in the South Charleston plant operating as planned.”
Purchase of the BEAST by Kanawha County was entirely through its own school bus replenishment funds; no federal or state grant money was used.
“The economics of GreenPower all-electric school buses makes it an easy decision to migrate your fleet from diesel to electric,” says Tom Williams, superintendent of the Kanawha County School District. “We deployed the first Nano BEAST Access produced in South Charleston, and now we are receiving the first BEAST made at the GreenPower facility as well. We are looking forward to getting many more GreenPower BEASTs over the next few months.”
“This first BEAST helped us verify our production process in the plant just like the first Nano BEAST production last year verified that line process,” adds Wendell White, GreenPower’s vice president of Production. “We can and are now proceeding with a full manufacturing plan for both the BEAST and Nano BEAST at the South Charleston facility that will produce all-electric school buses to complement our California and contract manufacturing to meet the nationwide demand for GreenPower all-electric, purpose-built school buses.”
GreenPower currently has 37 Type D BEASTs in production that have been ordered by the state of West Virginia. Substantially all of these school buses will be delivered by the end of 2024.