Fraser Atkinson
CEO, GreenPower Motor Company
The adoption of electric vehicles is accelerating, and GreenPower Motor Company’s traction in the commercial market has it leading the charge.
Vancouver-based GreenPower Motor Company is a leading designer, manufacturer, and distributor of battery-electric zero-emission vehicles covering the local cargo and delivery market as well as transit, shuttle, and school sectors. With a manufacturing site in California, GreenPower’s competitive advantage is that instead of retrofitting light- and heavy-duty gas-powered vehicles, its fleet of cargo and passenger vans and buses are all clean-sheet designed and purpose-built.
“GreenPower’s custom design and purpose-built architecture gives us a more durable vehicle, with a higher payload and longer range,” says Fraser Atkinson, GreenPower’s CEO. “The clean transportation economy will continue to grow and as EV unit costs continue to decline, we can now show that going electric is not only environmentally appealing, it’s cheaper. One big advantage of going all-electric are the substantially reduced operating costs. The traction motor in GreenPower’s EV Star line is maintenance-free for the first million kilometres and has a longer lifespan than traditional gas-powered cargo and shuttle vans.”
During Altoona testing, which is sponsored by the U.S. Federal Transit Administration and measures things such as durability, performance, reliability, fuel economy, and emissions, GreenPower’s EV Star achieved the second highest score of any vehicle in the U.S. And with the broadest range of battery-electric vehicles compared to any other manufacturer in North America, GreenPower has the flexibility to adapt based on the changing market conditions. There are three product lines that are currently driving sales.
View GreenPower’s all-electric products:
Leading the charge
The EV Star has become the flagship model for GreenPower because of its multi-utility and reliability. Using standard charging, EV Star mini-buses offer great flexibility, durability, and efficiency for the most demanding operators. The San Diego airport currently uses these vehicles as shuttles 24 hours a day. With a range of 240 kilometres on a single charge, they can be customized with multiple positions for wheelchairs or other mobility aids. The EV Star can carry 19 passengers, while the EV Star+ has a 24-passenger capacity. And the EV Star ADA comes with 12 standard passenger seats, two wheelchair spots, and a safe and convenient curbside lift.
Delivering ground-breaking features
The same industry-leading features that have become a hallmark of the company’s mini-buses are supplying results for the cargo delivery and logistics markets. With the increasing demand from medium- and heavy-duty cargo operators, GreenPower has fine-tuned its three best-in-class EV Star cargo vans.
This year, GreenPower introduced the EV Star CC, a bare cab and chassis perfect for bodybuilders and upfitters. The EV Star Cargo has a payload of 5,000 pounds and the same 240-kilometre range of the mini-buses, while the wider EV Star Cargo+ delivers over 600 cubic feet of cargo space. It’s this combination of enhanced payload and range that retrofitted vehicles can’t deliver. And with GreenPower’s cargo vans typically running for 10 to 12 hours a day, customers are happy with the results.
EV Star+ 
EV Star CC 
B.E.A.S.T.
An A grade for these buses
GreenPower also manufactures battery-electric school buses. With no tailpipe emissions and zero noise pollution, these buses are getting A grades from school districts.
The focus on electric school buses has gone from a good thing to something parents are beginning to demand, as they’ve come to understand the harmful effects of the diesel-emitting school buses on the lung development of children, as studies have shown increased rates of asthma and lung cancer associated with diesel emissions.
Designed to last 20 years, the pioneering features of the buses include a clean-sheet design, increased capacity, and a range of 240 kilometres on a single charge. Sitting in the driver’s seat is U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, who has pledged to transition all 500,000 school buses in the U.S. to zero-emission buses by 2030.
