this week.
West Virginia Governor Jim Justice has announced that Green Power Motor
company will manufacture zero emission all electric busses in the state.
Not only will this facility create hundreds of green jobs, but it makes the state
of West Virginia an emerging leader
in transitioning to electrification of transportation.
Joining me now is fraser Ackerson,
ceo of Green Power Motor company and Green Power Motor sell
green power motors calls the zero emissions busses the beast,
the beast
introduced us to the beast and tell us everything we should know about it.
What's the battery, electric,
automated school transportation or beast for short and,
and and it is a beast in the sense that it's a great drive,
It has best of best of breed in terms of a combination of
both range and the ability to accommodate up to 90 Children on,
on the vehicle that you see on your screen there.
So why was West Virginia of all places selected by
Green Power as the best place to manufacture these busses?
Well,
we went through a fairly exhaustive process
of looking at facilities across the nation
and through that we determined that we needed to
find a facility that was ready for production as we said, and as well,
the locale and the state government, uh, being promoters and,
and being in a position that they would purchase our,
our vehicles literally right out of the gate
and the state of West Virginia that, you know, the property that
That has been secured for this transaction, you know, is absolutely ideal for us.
You know, it's,
it's production ready and initially we had talked
about an occupancy date of September one,
but we're already looking at accelerating that to this spring.
So hopefully
were produced starting the production of all electric school busses this summer.
Now Governor Jim Justice said that he's
focused on transforming West Virginia's image.
So how is he planning on doing this and why
will this green power motor facility help with the transformation?
Well, what a lot of people may not know is that West Virginia does have um,
a bit of an automotive base.
So it's not,
we're not stepping in as being the first
uh manufacturer of medium and heavy duty vehicles,
but the bigger opportunity is that, you know,
we're a West Coast based company and or have been a west uh west coast based company.
And one of our core objectives was we needed an East Coast presence,
not in terms of having a sales office,
but by having a base of operation for a corer set of our products.
And so west Virginia is gonna serve as our
center of excellence for all electric school busses and
really feed into the north all the way down to the state of florida from that state.
Now, let's talk about the economic impact that this facility will have on the state.
How is this facility going to impact the West Virginia workforce,
like how many jobs are we talking about here.
Well, initially we're in the first couple of years,
we're looking at getting to 200 employees
with this facility with multiple shifts and extending those shifts
into non peak hours. It has the potential of expanding out to almost 900 employees.
So it's a,
you know,
it's it's a fairly substantive employer that
our employment base that we're looking at building
and one that's really skilled in terms of
the clean transportation and initiatives that are,
are coming in our economy.
So why is switching to zero emission, all electric busses safer and healthier,
not just for the environment, but for also for families in West Virginia?
Well, the you brought up a great point because so many people we talked to,
especially on the commercial side that we're dealing with our
are are regular busses or cargo vans or,
or products like that is in this particular case in the school sector,
is that the research shows that there's a much higher incidence of lung cancer,
asthma, and other respiratory illnesses, especially for Children
in the category between kindergarten and great sex.
So we get them on our vehicles that are all electric, you know,
the all electric school bus.
Not only is it a better environment for that child, but when they get to the school,
they're more refreshed,
they're not tired from having sat on a
vehicle where they're breathing in NOx emissions.
And uh, particular matters
now what other states are expected to follow
in West Virginia's footsteps to have all electric,
zero emissions school busses in the future?
Well California had stepped up and as we say, put the thumb on the scale in terms of,
Of setting mandates. But more recently in the last week, the governor of New York
has set a mandate that by 2035
all school busses have to be zero mission in the state of new york.
And right now the only solution is a battery electric
or all electric school bus that will satisfy that requirement.
So I think we're going to see a lot more
of those types of mandates being set and not just necessarily funding
that is being used to incentivize
school districts to go electric.
Alright. And usually electric vehicles, they're pretty fast through to 60.
What are we talking about on these school busses?
I'm kidding fraser Atkinson Ceo of Green Power Motor Company sir,
thank you for being on the show.
I appreciate your time.