B.C. Transit has taken steps to secure spare parts for buses built by failed manufacturer Vicinity Motor Corp (VMC), which is based in the Metro Vancouver community of Aldergrove.
An unsigned statement issued in response to a Black Press query said B.C. Transit has 190 Vicinity buses in service throughout the province.
"In an effort to maintain reliability, our supply services team has secured a large quantity of parts and has made initial contact with some key suppliers," the statement said.
Last October, Vicinity shut down when the Royal Bank of Canada obtained a court order forcing the firm into receivership, where a secured creditor or the court appoints a receiver to take control of a business' assets and sell them to repay a loan.
Vicinity owed $69 million, half of it to the Royal Bank and Export Development Canada, and the rest to a long list of foreign and domestic businesses.
In 2008, Vicinity, then known as Grande West, was founded in response after a request from B.C. Transit and Ottawa's OC Transpo for heavy-duty, mid-size buses was declined by the major bus manufacturers.
In October 2011, BC Transit signed a deal to buy 15 Vicinity-model buses valued at $3.8 million, which were delivered in 2013.
According to court documents filed by FTI Consulting Canada, the receiver in charge of the debt-ridden company, Vicinity outsourced manufacturing to various foreign suppliers while carrying out final assembly at its Aldergrove plant.
VMC expanded into electric buses and trucks and even built an assembly plant in Ferndale, WA to allow it to sell in the U.S., but ran into financial trouble
More than 300 commercial trucks and just under 30 transit buses built by VMC were put up for sale, almost all electric with a handful of gas, diesel, and CNG power trains.
An FTI written "invitation to purchase" posted online said the vehicles were at four locations in the U.S. and Canada: Aldergrove, Ferndale, Wash., Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., and Dexter, Mich.
FTI estimated the vehicles combined value at $35.4 million.
Shop equipment, furniture, and spare parts, "collectively valued" at $4 million are also for sale.
As well, bidders were invited to "explore exclusive rights to acquire key assets, including intellectual property (IP), for VMC’s designs and its associated agreements" with an estimated value of $13.1 million.
