ANNISTON, AL — October 12, 2017 New Flyer of America Inc. held the grand opening of its Vehicle Innovation Center (VIC). The 36-acre, five-building campus in Anniston, AL is home to New Flyer’s first innovation lab. It is dedicated to the advancement of bus and coach technology that connects people to places with a focus on environment. XALT Energy supplies lithium-ion batteries to New Flyer for its zero-emission bus and they collaborated for their battery technology exhibit.
XALT Energy’s newly announced XMOD114E will be in a new bus that New Flyer released at American Public Transportation Association (APTA) EXPO. The exhibit also includes videos of XALT Energy’s capabilities and manufacturing facility in Midland, MI along with a video explaining how an XALT Energy battery pack is cooled.
NFI Group has already invested an estimated $4.1 million to create the VIC, and expects to invest an additional $5 million to develop its electric-bus manufacturing program. The investment, which is in addition to an ongoing $25 million expansion of the Anniston facility, was supported by the City of Anniston, State of Alabama, and Alabama Power (“Southern Company”).
NFI Group is the largest transit bus and motor coach manufacturer and parts distributor in North America, with 31 fabrication, manufacturing, distribution, and service centers across Canada and the U.S. employing over 5,800 team members.
It is North America’s heavy-duty transit bus leader and offers the largest transit bus product line under the brand Xcelsior®, incorporating the broadest range of drive systems available, including: clean diesel, natural gas, diesel-electric hybrid, trolley-electric, and battery-electric. NFI Group actively supports over 44,000 heavy-duty transit buses (New Flyer, NABI, and Orion) currently in service, of which 6,400 are powered by electric and battery propulsion.