Australian-made electric bus to roll out in July this year as new manufacturer launches
Former Brighsun CEO Allen Saylav has taken the helm at the new Australian electric bus manufacturing organisation AVASS.
Melbourne-based electric vehicle manufacturer AVASS has a newly-leased 12,500 square-metre factory at Avalon in Melbourne’s western suburbs and will manufacture electric vehicles under the AVA brand including electric buses, cars, motorcycles and trucks.
“Our technology is even stronger than what is currently on the market,” AVASS CEO Allen Saylav says.
“With AVA we intend on manufacturing in Australia and globally in the respective regions.
“We believe AVA will become a worldwide household name when it comes to electric vehicle manufacturing.”
Manufacturing mainly commercial vehicles, AVASS will focus on 12-metre city passenger, 12-metre coach and 9-metre passenger buses along with Small Trucks under 7000 kilograms.
“These vehicles will supply the Australian marketplace with plans to ship orders to New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region when required,” Saylav says.
“This is great news for cleaner, greener, urban transit systems not only in Australia but also worldwide.”
AVASS is confident the organisation will generate jobs and fill the hole left by the closure of manufacturing giants Holden, Toyota and Ford.
Fully-supported by the Geelong Chamber of Commerce, the organisation has entered into a five-year lease at Avalon, with the capacity to hire up to 500 people.
Bus models include the Matilda for city-route service applications as well as the AVASS touring bus.
“These high capacity, high efficiency and ultra-performance vehicles are sure to be in demand,” Saylav says.
“We are really proud to be leading the way in electric vehicle manufacturing in Australia and have had extensive interests internationally.
The first Australian–made AMA vehicles will roll off the assembly line in July this year.