Fifty years is a credential. It isn’t a strategy. What should interest an agency buying buses in 2026 is the plant ENC is running today, the portfolio it can build now, and the customers already running its vehicles.
Since Rivaz Inc. took ownership in 2024, ENC has put and committed more than $50 million into the places it shows up in service: facility upgrades, workforce development and upskilling, and planned expansion at its California campus.
ENC’s Riverside Facility
Every ENC vehicle undergoes final assembly, integration and manufacturing in the United States, at a 227,000-square-foot, ISO 9001-certified facility on a 17-acre campus in Jurupa Valley, in Riverside County, California. Roughly 300 people work there today, and ENC’s supply base spans more than 30 states.
That hasn’t gone unnoticed outside the industry. In March, California Assemblywoman Leticia Castillo, Vice Chair of the Assembly Committee on Economic Development, Growth, and Household Impact, walked the production floor. In May, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco did the same. In August, Mr. Brian Berkson, the Mayor of Jurupa Valley, where ENC is based, also toured and walked the facility.
“ENC represents more than 50 years of American transit manufacturing, and every bus we build here creates ripple effects: skilled jobs in Riverside, demand for domestic suppliers in more than 30 states, and reliable transit for communities nationwide,” said ENC Chief Executive Officer Jason Lee.
“A bus isn’t a product you can partially outsource and still stand behind,” said Mike Crostic, Vice President of Operations at ENC. “Body, chassis, integration, finish: all of it under one roof. When an agency asks about a weld or a wire, we’re not calling three companies for the answer.”
The product line
AXESS. The heavy-duty flagship, 33 to 40 feet. A non-ferritic 304-grade stainless steel body structure engineered for corrosion resistance and long service life. Low-floor architecture, full air ride suspension front and rear, and air disc brakes with ABS come standard. Clean diesel, CNG, and diesel-electric hybrid. Designed to meet ADA vehicle-accessibility requirements, with configurable floorplans and comprehensive mobility features.
AXESS EVO-BE. The battery-electric variant: 492 kWh at 33 feet, 615 kWh at 35 feet, 738 kWh at 40 feet, seating 27, 35, and 43 passengers. A BAE Systems Gen3 electric drive paired with Proterra energy storage. All three lengths Altoona-tested.
E-Z Rider II. The mid-size platform, 30 to 35 feet, built for airports, smaller cities, colleges, and athletic operations. A swept windshield improves driver visibility, with ADA-compliant wheelchair accessibility at multiple door locations.
Every configuration is a tested variant of one standard platform.
“Fleet planning has gotten harder, not easier,” said John Obert, Vice President of Transit Sales at ENC. “Agencies make twelve-year decisions in an environment that moves every twelve months. Our answer is readiness, so the decision they make is the decision we can build.”
The credentials
ENC is an FTA-listed Transit Vehicle Manufacturer. ENC offers Altoona-tested models and configurations designed to meet Buy America requirements, which means an agency’s capital supports American plants and American labor.
Those aren’t filing-cabinet credentials. They’re what lets an agency move when federal money arrives with a clock attached.
“Stainless steel is the decision that pays an agency back the longest,” Obert said. “It isn’t the headline feature. Twelve years in, it’s the one the maintenance director thanks us for.”
Procurement access
Agencies can reach ENC without starting from zero.
In June, ENC became an approved supplier to the NEORide consortium, opening a direct procurement path to more than 40 transit agencies across 12 states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Maryland, Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and West Virginia.
“Adding ENC as an approved supplier strengthens our ability to deliver innovative, American-made solutions that support our agencies’ operational needs,” said Katherine Conrad, Executive Director of NEORide.
In August, the Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation named ENC an approved manufacturer on a five-year cooperative procurement contract in North Carolina: a base of 49 buses with options for 50 more, up to 99 units, open to PART, Winston-Salem Transit Authority, and Link Transit in Burlington. ENC also holds a place on Washington State’s Department of Enterprise Services statewide transit bus contract.
Earlier in the year, SEPTA named ENC its manufacturing partner of choice for diesel-electric hybrid buses backed by a $43 million competitive award from the FTA’s FY25 Low and No Emission and Bus and Bus Facilities grant programs. That award was part of a $2.027 billion package announced by U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy in November 2025, covering 165 transit projects across 45 states and the District of Columbia and supporting delivery of 2,400 buses built with American parts and labor.
Built for an evolving ridership
ENC buses run fixed-route transit, university systems, and airport and parking shuttle operations, with millions of miles logged. Harvard, Rutgers, Clemson, UC San Diego, and Georgia State are customers. So are the Denver, Dallas Fort Worth, LAX, and Cleveland airports.
Private operators are a growing segment. Academy Bus placed a third consecutive order inside a year in May, bringing its AXESS fleet to 35. In July, Croswell VIP Motorcoach Services of Williamsburg, Ohio put six 40-foot clean diesel AXESS buses into service as the official transportation provider to the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky.
“Our ongoing experience with ENC has given us full confidence in the quality, reliability, and disciplined build process behind every AXESS bus,” said David Lehmkuhl, Vice President of Real Estate at Academy Bus.
Demand reaches across the border as well. York Region Transit ordered three 32-foot clean diesel E-Z Rider II buses in June, and Canada’s RCMP selected AXESS buses through City View Bus Sales & Service in January.
Powered by the people behind it
ENC has been building its commercial organization alongside the plant. John Obert was promoted to Vice President of Transit Sales in March. DJ Hammingh and Robert Cato joined as Regional Sales Managers in June.
The Aftermarket team was also expanded over the past year, and today, ENC ships most in-stock parts orders within 24 hours, direct from Riverside with no dealer in between.
“Buying a bus is the start of a relationship, not the end of a transaction,” Crostic said. “Agencies remember who answers the phone in year seven.”
Standardization pays there too. Because ENC’s models share a body structure and much of a component set, parts stocked for one bus serve most of the fleet, and a technician trained on one vehicle isn’t starting over on the next.
Meet ENC at APTA EXPO
ENC exhibits at APTA EXPO in Chicago, from October 4-7 in booth #1006. Come see the platform, and meet the team behind it.
Learn more at eldorado-ca.com.