Canadian electric truck and bus manufacturer Vicinity Motor Corp celebrated the opening Tuesday of a 100,000-square-foot assembly facility near Bellingham, Wash.
The manufacturing site marks the creation of yet another clean transportation facility in the state, which is home to next-generation battery materials, electric airplane startups, First Mode’s massive hydrogen-powered trucks, battery-powered pleasure and commercial boats and ships, and Rad Power’s e-bikes, among others.
Vicinity Motor’s new location will have an annual capacity of assembling up to 850 low- and zero-emission buses and 6,250 class 3 all-electric trucks. The facility can also be used for pre-delivery inspections of vehicles, R&D, and general technical and servicing work.
The commercial EV maker is based in Aldergrove, B.C., just across the Washington border and a drive of roughly 40 minutes to the new site in Ferndale.
Analysts expect the e-truck and bus market to grow significantly in coming years. Buses are leading the worldwide shift to EVs, and by 2032, about half of the globe’s buses will be electric, according to BloombergNEF’s annual Electric Vehicle Outlook. In North America alone, the inventory of light- and medium-duty EVs could reach 1 million by the end of the decade and 6 million by 2040, according to Vicinity Motor.
Vicinity Motor officials said the facility will help chip away at the company’s $150 million worth of orders, including purchases by Lafarge Canada, Transdev and Pioneer Auto Group.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and other elected officials attended Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“Companies like Vicinity are making it possible for us to decarbonize the transportation sector and defeat the climate crisis, all while creating family-wage jobs for Washingtonians,” Inslee said in a statement.
The Ferndale facility will be able to assemble two Vicinity Motor vehicles:
- The VMC 1200, a lithium-ion battery, class 3 truck with a 150-mile range and 100 kilowatt hours of power. This class of truck generally includes medium-duty vehicles such as delivery trucks, heavy-duty pickups and mini vans.
- Vicinity Classic and Lightning, which are mid-size buses that can run on electric, compressed natural gas, or clean-diesel fuels.
Locating a manufacturing site in Washington will allow Vicinity Motor to take advantage of federal Buy America tax benefits. The site will provide an estimated 300 jobs.
Vicinity Motor spent approximately $17 million to build the facility and is making further investments in its infrastructure. The company received $300,000 from the state to help pay for the effort.
