NZ designs lead to $66m deal in United Arab Emirates
Treasury bosses from New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom have come together for the first time at a meeting in Hawke's Bay this week.
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The DesignLine bus technology company founded in New Zealand has signed a $US30 million ($NZ66.5 million) joint venture agreement with Liberty Automotive to produce "green" buses in Abu Dhabi, at a factory due to be opened later this year.
Company officials said in a statement that the new factory will be capable of producing 300 buses a year, and revenue for the first year has been estimated at over $US80m ($NZ106m).
The project is expected to double the company's workforce at its Rolleston factory, 22km southwest of Christchurch, and at its American head office in Charlotte, North Carolina. Both locations will focus on adding high tech, full-time jobs in the rapidly-expanding clean-energy sector, the company said.
DesignLine will produce electric/hybrid buses with zero emissions which will be using a proprietary software vehicle management system created by DesignLine research and development in New Zealand.
According to DesignLine, its hybrid vehicles produce 65 percent to 80 percent fewer emissions than rival buses.
By replacing internal combustion engines with a spinning turbine and generator that recharges a lithium-ion battery -- a green energy source more commonly found inside laptop computers -- bus operators can use the DesignLine software and hybrid control system to operate in a zero-emission mode for up to 40 percent of the day.
Other Middle Eastern countries are negotiating with DesignLine to convert their diesel transit fleets to either electric or hybrid vehicles, the company said.
New Zealander John Turton started the business 24 years ago but sold out to a North Carolina-based investment group in 2006. DesignLine International Holdings employs about 150 people in Canterbury.
The company has also sold New Zealand-designed hybrid buses in the United States.
DesignLine makes electric trolley buses for use in Wellington but many of the buses sold in New Zealand -- at the rate of about two a day -- have been diesel.
NZPA
Thu, 17 Feb 2011
Thu, 17 Feb 2011
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NZ designs lead to $66m deal in United Arab Emirates
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