Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LA Metro) has approved an order for 220 battery-electric buses from US manufacturer ENC, with all vehicles to be built in Jurupa Valley, California.
The award covers 40-foot AXESS EVO-BE battery-electric buses. According to ENC, it is the largest base award of 40-foot battery-electric buses made by a US transit agency.
The order comes as Los Angeles prepares to host the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, while LA Metro continues work to transition its bus fleet towards zero-emission vehicles.
The 220 buses will be manufactured at ENC’s 227,000-square-foot facility in Jurupa Valley. More than 300 people work at the site, which carries out production activities including frame welding, painting, final assembly and vehicle testing.
The award is also expected to support jobs within ENC’s wider supplier network, which includes companies employing workers across Los Angeles County and Southern California.
John Obert, ENC’s vice president of transit sales said:An award of this scale is built on trust, and we intend to keep earning it every day. Our California team will build these buses close to the communities they serve, with the quality and reliability Metro riders count on. We are proud of the good jobs this work represents for hundreds of Californians, and of the role these buses will play in how Los Angeles County moves.
The AXESS EVO-BE is ENC’s battery-electric heavy-duty transit bus. The model uses BAE Systems’ Gen3 electric drive system and can be equipped with up to 738 kWh of energy storage.
The buses are built on a 304-grade stainless steel structure and have undergone Altoona testing. The AXESS EVO-BE is available in 33-, 35- and 40-foot configurations, with ADA-compliant designs and configurable interior layouts.
LA Metro currently operates around 2,000 low-emission buses alongside six rail lines. The agency records nearly one million weekday boardings and more than 280 million boardings annually across its network.
