(Yicai Global) March 3 -- Yutong Bus yesterday started shipping to Uzbekistan some of the 800 buses the Central Asian country is buying from the electric bus maker in partial fulfilment of the largest single commercial vehicle order placed with a Chinese firm by a country in the Belt and Road Initiative.

It is also the largest order for new energy buses that a Chinese company has received so far this year, Zhengzhou-based Yutong also said in a statement yesterday. The order comprises 300 electric buses and 500 compressed natural gas buses.

“There are other bus makers overseas, but they don’t have the same new energy technology advantages of Chinese companies, so we need to seize the opportunity,” Peng Xu, head of the Yutong’s overseas marketing department, told Yicai Global.

Yutong, which also recently received a 550 order for electric buses from Saudi Arabia, will develop a detailed overseas market expansion plan for the next five years, Peng noted.

China’s market for urban and long-distance buses is under severe strain because of weakening demand due to alternative forms of transportation in the form of high-speed railroads and private cars. Domestic sales of six-meter or more buses halved to 100,000 units between 2012 and 2022, according to information on 360buses.cn.

Yutong is not alone in eyeing overseas markets. BYD received an order for 64 electric buses from Norway in November, bringing the total of its e-buses delivered to Sweden, Norway, and Finland to more than 300. Ankai Automobile said last August that its products had been exported to over 100 countries in continents including Europe and the Americas.

Editors: Shi Yi, Futura Costaglione