ABC Companies, a leading provider of motorcoach, transit and specialty passenger transport equipment in the USA and Canada, announced that it has entered into a strategic U.S. distribution agreement with Grande West, a leading supplier of electric, CNG, gas and clean diesel buses.
The ABC distributorship supports Grande West’s focus on U.S. expansion as it begins marketing the fully Buy America compliant Vicinity™ heavy duty mid-size bus, the Vicinity Lightning™ EV and Vicinity™ LT light duty models to new and existing customers.
Under the new agreement, ABC will distribute the manufacturer’s Vicinity™ heavy-duty vehicles throughout the Western United States from Texas to California. The Vicinity line fills in key transit and private shuttle markets within the ABC portfolio of new vehicles for these locations, enhancing the offering to current customers while expanding to other sectors.
“As we continue to expand our portfolio offering, our main goal is to provide more choice and price points for operators in the private ground transportation and public transit segments. Our distribution agreement with Grande West enables ABC to offer its proven record of customer sales, service and support with a proven high-quality Buy America compliant product line. After an extensive search, we found the Vicinity product line which achieved best in class results across a number of the Federal Transit Authorities Altoona testing procedures. The 12-year 500,000-mile heavy duty testing regime demonstrated stellar results for fuel economy, structural durability and maintenance and repairs. This solidified our decision to bring the Vicinity line into the ABC product portfolio as our customers expect us to find and bring high-quality products to their operations,” said Roman Cornell, President ABC Companies.
With shifting priorities across the spectrum of ground transportation providers, ABC looks to deepen its product line to effectively provide the versatility and single-source convenience operators need.
“Our customers’ needs drive our strategic priorities,” said Cornell “The Grande West Vicinity lineup offers added flexibility and choice to our transit customer base who already utilize ABC’s parts and maintenance services. While it’s also a great fit for our private operators who want to use mid-size vehicles for a variety of fleet applications like local transportation contracts, line runs and shuttle service.”
The new agreement also expands ABC’s growing battery-electric portfolio, which currently spans from passenger transport vans up to 45’ motorcoaches, as well as double-deck zero-emission vehicles. With decades of experience in sales, technical, repair and maintenance support, ABC is committed to supporting heavy duty mid-size market users who can leverage the expertise of a proven market leader.
“We are proud to announce our distribution partnership with ABC, representing an excellent addition to our reach in the United States, particularly as we begin to market our Buy America compliant Vicinity™ buses to new and existing customers,” said William Trainer, President and Chief Executive Officer of Grande West. “In particular, ABC’s well-established reputation for EV sales in the California market will prove invaluable as we bring our new Vicinity Lightning™ EV bus to market. We look forward to working closely with Roman and the ABC team going forward.”