GreenPower Motor Company Inc. joined Gov. Jim Justice in announcing that it entered into a lease/purchase agreement for a manufacturing facility in South Charleston, West Virginia, for the purpose of manufacturing zero-emission, all-electric school buses. As part of the agreement, the state of West Virginia has committed to purchase a minimum of $15 million of GreenPower vehicles produced at the facility.

GreenPower has entered into a lease/purchase agreement with the state of West Virginia to acquire properties located in South Charleston, totaling 9.5 acres and an 80,000 square foot building. The terms of the lease require no cash up front and monthly lease payments begin nine months after production begins. All lease payments will be applied in full to the purchase of the property. GreenPower plans to begin manufacturing zero-emission, all-electric school buses in the facility by the second half of 2022. The state will provide up to $3.5 million in employment incentive payments to the company for jobs created in the state as production increases over time. Title to the properties will be transferred to GreenPower once total lease and incentive payments reach $6.7 million.

“GreenPower is pleased to announce that its zero-emission, all-electric school bus manufacturing operations are expanding east of the Mississippi River with West Virginia becoming our school bus manufacturing base of operations for the region,” said Brendan Riley, president of GreenPower. “The state has agreed to facilitate the purchase of a minimum of $15 million in zero-emission GreenPower school buses produced at the facility. West Virginia has shown us that it is a pro-business state that has a workforce ready to take advantage of clean energy jobs.”

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, exposure to NOx exhaust can trigger health problems like asthma, bronchitis, and other respiratory issues. The primary source of NOx is motor vehicles — including school buses. Diesel exhaust is designated “carcinogenic to humans” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.