With the closure of Ford and many other manufacturing enterprises in the Geelong region the good burghers of the Corio Bay area have received a fillip with the news that a start up electric commercial manufacturer has set up shop at Avalon just north of the city with a bold plan to manufacturer a range of green vehicles in the plant.
AVASS is a new Australian company that claims it will be building electric buses under the AVA brand in its factory near Avalon, with the first scheduled to roll off the line in July.
The company is headed up by Allen Saylav, who was formerly in charge of another electric bus company Brighsun, which made equally bold claims about local electric bus manufacturing last year.
Saylav told www.truckandbus.net.au that he has purchased every aspect of the Brighsun operation but did not want to use the name of the former operation and decided to use the AVA name.
Saylav is confident AVA will become a strong contender in the bus market with a range of vehicles using the company’s own technology and that the manufacture of electric buses will be a success.
AVASS has newly-leased a 12,500 square-metre factory and Saylev says that electric vehicles under the AVA brand are already being produced with one of the company’s Gen 1 12.5 metre city buses having already been built and displayed at a recent MIELB Green Energy expo in Macau, Saylev told T&BNews
He told us that the company has plans that will include not just electric buses but also cars, motorcycles and trucks.
The company currently employs 55 peoplebut Saylev says that its three year plan is to have 3000 workers in the factory which can expand across a site that totals more than 580 hectares adjoining the Avalon airport.
“We are ully-supported by the Geelong Chamber of Commerce, and we have entered into a five-year lease at Avalon with an option on the extra 580 hectares to allow our expansion within our five year plan,” said Saylev.
The CEO said that he currently has four engineers and designers on staff and his own credentials and background is in automotive engineering, gas and oil industry engineering as well as having compliance engineering accreditation. He is adamant that the company is well financed and backed and that it has access to ‘plenty of funds’ to ensure its ambitious plans can be fulfilled.
“Our technology is even stronger than what is currently on the market,” AVASS CEO Allen Saylav confidently stated.
“With AVA we intend on manufacturing in Australia and globally in the respective regions, including making battery packs in China where we are currently producing our batteries in what is the biggest automotive batter factory in the world,” he said.
“We believe AVA will become a worldwide household name when it comes to electric vehicle manufacturing.”
AVASS says it will focus on buses initiatlly with a 12-metre city bus, 12-metre coach and nine-metre passenger bus but will also potentially produce small trucks under seven-tonnes.
“We will supply the Australian market but we have plans to export to New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region,” Saylav says.
“We believe this is great news for cleaner, greener, urban transit systems not only in Australia but also worldwide,” he added.
AVASS is confident the organisation will generate jobs and fill the hole left by the closure of manufacturing giants Holden, Toyota and Ford.
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.
T&BN will follow the ambitious AVASS plans and hope to drive the new AVA electric bus in the next few months and bring it to you here on the website
