China / Qatar – Zhengzhou Yutong Group Co Ltd (“Yutong”), a bus manufacturer based in Zhengzhou, Henan, China, in its year-end financial report announced that deliveries of its order for 741 battery-electric buses (out of a total 1,002 bus order) from public transport operator Mowasalat of Doha, Qatar began on 17 December 2021. The vehicles will serve during the 2022 FIFA World Cup, starting on 21 November 2022, after which they will put into regular service on the Middle Eastern country’s public transit routes. 

As part of this order, Yutong also reached an agreement with the government to build an electric-bus plant for assembling knocked-down buses from China in the Qatar Science & Technology Park, a free-trade zone. The buses intended for Qatar are reportedly optimised to operate well in the hot and dry climate, with liquid cooling systems and 350-kWh lithium-ion phosphate batteries. The Chinese manufacturer plans to assemble 1,500 electric buses at the new facility before 2030, for export to the rest of the Middle East as well as Europe, South America, and Africa.