Fresh off last week’s State of the Union Address, where President Joe Biden touted his administration’s historic investment in climate initiatives like electric vehicles, Vice President Kamala Harris visited the Minnesota facility of bus manufacturer New Flyer of America on February 9, producers of the Xcelsior and Xcelsor CHARGE line of buses (including electric and hybrid). New Flyer is a division of the NFI Group, which is also the parent company of motorcoach manufacturer MCI.
Harris addressed a crowd of several hundred, including St. Cloud, Minnesota, Mayor Dave Kleis. Harris toured the assembly line where New Flyer’s most advanced e-bus, Xcelsior CHARGE NG, is produced, according to a release from the company. The Xcelsior CHARGE NG has already been adopted by numerous transit authorities across the country.
“Buses are our nation’s most popular form of public transportation,” she said to the crowd. “The electric buses being built in this factory are a model of American innovation and key to the future of public transportation. In 2009, then Vice President Joe Biden stood in this plant, when at the time you were building cutting-edge hybrid electric buses, and said, ‘NFI is an example of the future.’ A lot has changed in the last 14 years, but one thing has not; you are still an example of America’s future.”
Vice President Kamala Harris tours New Flyer of America
Last year, the bipartisan infrastructure bill allocated billions over several years toward electric vehicles writ large, including e-buses. More recently, Harris has spoken about the availability of grants—more than $5 billion over the next five years--to allow school districts to switch over to electric buses.
“It was fantastic to host Vice President Harris at our New Flyer facility in Minnesota, providing us with an opportunity to showcase our incredible team, our facility, and our industry leading solutions. The benefits of the Biden Harris administration’s record investments in public transportation were on display as we walked our production floor and sat on buses destined for cities across America. We were also able to discuss opportunities for the administration to assist our manufacturing industry as we recover from the effects of global supply disruption and prolonged inflation,” said NFI President & CEO Paul Soubry.
NFI also operates the Vehicle Innovation Center, the first and only innovation lab of its kind in the United States dedicated to advancing bus and coach zero-emission technology and workforce development. Since opening in late 2017, it has hosted over 350 interactive events, welcoming 7,000 industry professionals for zero-emission bus and infrastructure training, according to the company.
Visit newflyer.com for more information.
[02.14.23]