The Australian distributor of Foton electric commercial vehicles, Foton Mobility has announced it will establish an electric bus assembly plant at Nowra on the NSW South Coast to fulfil the growing demand for zero emission buses, in particular to satisfy the ambitious targets for clean buses over the next decade, set by the NSW Government.
Neil Wang, the founder of KRW Motor Group, the parent company of Foton Mobility Distribution Australia, says his ambition is to build buses in Australia, foster local content, creating local jobs and enable a faster transition to Net Zero.
As CEO of Foton Mobility Distribution (FMD), Wang and his team claim to have delivered in excess of 200 light duty battery electric trucks, and a fleet of hydrogen fuel cell buses into the Australian market, and he says he has new products planned for this year. The facility s believed to be set to build bodies on Foton battery electric bus chassis.
Prior to establishing Foton Mobility, Wang pioneered the Chinese bus brand Yutong in Australia with some success, given it captured a sizeable share of the local coach and regional school bus market under his stewardship.
Wang revealed this week that the company has lodged a development application with Shoalhaven Council, seeking approval to build a 6,000 square metre facility on a 15,000 square metre parcel of land, with the goal of producing latest technology buses, employing up to 100 locals when the assembly plant is at full capacity.
The facility will also produce battery electric trucks, as well as hydrogen fuel cell engines, creating around 100 ongoing quality, skilled manufacturing jobs for local workers.
Foton’s bus contract was one of the first bus orders made through the NSW Government’s Zero Emission Buses (ZEB) program.
The first stage of the Transport for NSW ZEB program is converting 11 existing bus depots in Greater Sydney to battery electric technology, building a new battery electric depot at Macquarie Park and procuring around 1,200 new electric buses by 2028.
According to the statement from Transport for NSW, its ZEB program is being delivered in stages in consultation with industry, including manufacturers, to provide an opportunity to increase capability and capacity supported by a published pipeline of bus orders.
The government admits that while the domestic bus manufacturing sector can’t be rebuilt overnight, facilities like the FMD one at Nowra, are the first step towards building things in NSW again.
The NSW Government said this facility delivers on its commitment to domestic manufacturing, supporting local jobs and local industry to build the public transport the state needs, and follows what it describes as “12 years of offshoring by the former Government, which it claims has led NSW miss out on thousands of job opportunities and brought lengthy delays and cost blowouts on major transport contracts.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said the offshoring of public transport by the former government has been a complete disaster.
“This is why we’re building these buses here in NSW creating local jobs and public transport that works,” said the Premier.
“This state of the art facility in Nowra will create ongoing skilled jobs in regional NSW while also delivering emissions free world class public transport for the people of our state,” Minds added.
“Workers across NSW are great at building public transport like these buses, and under our government they’re building them here again,” he said.
NSW Minister for Transport, Jo Haylen said that when the Minns Labor Government says it wanted to build more buses here, it mean it.
“Once Foton gets this plant up and running there will be an extra 100 quality manufacturing jobs right here. That’s great news for Nowra and a big boost for NSW manufacturing,” said Haylen.
“We want our local manufacturers and suppliers have good opportunities to get involved in building the Zero Emissions Buses that we need. That’s why we have structured our zero-emissions bus program in a way that builds our bus manufacturing capacity for the long term,” said the Transport Minister.
“We are at the beginning of our project to build the clean, green buses of the future. Transport for NSW announced the first battery electric bus orders under the Zero Emissions Bus program for Greater Sydney in December 2024,” she added.
“There will be many more orders to come for Sydney, Outer Metropolitan and Regional NSW and many good quality, skilled manufacturing jobs that will be created thanks to the Minns Labor Government’s support for building our buses, trains and ferries right here in Australia,” Haylen concluded.
Minister for Domestic Manufacturing and Government Procurement, Courtney Houssos said the new facility shows the high-quality products that NSW workers and businesses can deliver.
“The previous government sent contracts like this offshore, costing NSW thousands of jobs and billions of dollars. We are choosing to support local jobs and local businesses.,” said Houssos.
“By leveraging the power of government contracts like this, we can rebuild local industries, support local workers and grow the NSW economy, particularly in regional communities and this is an important milestone as we deliver on our pledge to bring domestic manufacturing back to NSW,” she added.
The business claims to be 100 per cent Australian-owned and says it will create capacity to build and deliver more than 400 buses per annum to a range of operators. It claims it will also provide enhanced local content for buses currently supplied by it to the Australian market.
Wang says once operational the factory will continue his claimed theme of innovation and education, by creating partnerships with local TAFE’s and other tertiary institutions, which he says will share and build knowledge around all things zero emissions and “new energy” while also introducing latest technology.
The company claims a temporary assembly facility will be ready and opened as early as May this year to start the training and upskilling of a local workforce.
Wang said he and his team at FMD are pleased to have been chosen as one of the initial four successful tenderers for the supply of battery electric buses to Transport for NSW, with the initial order for 126 buses being the catalyst for moving forward with plans for the Nowra production facility.
*FMD has worked closely with TAFE NSW, TAFE Qld and a raft of tertiary institutions to provide technical skills and knowledge which is now the basis for a number of micro-skills courses designed to help industry partners meet the demands of zero emissions transport, said Wang.
“Additionally, FMD in conjunction with CSIRO and Federation University, has sponsored a PhD program covering the development of a PEMFC (hydrogen fuel systems) suitable for tractors,” he added.
