South Charleston manufacturer seeking workers at hiring event

GreenPower employees construct an electric school bus. GreenPower will hold an open hiring event at their South Charleston facility.Photo byGreenPower

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A South Charleston manufacturing facility is in need of multiple new workers.

GreenPower Motor Company, an electric school bus manufacturing business, will hold a recruitment event to fill a dozen open positions on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. Interviews will take place from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m at the company’s facility at 30 Industrial Way in South Charleston.

In a release announcing the hiring event, GreenPower representatives said they will be considering candidates for the following vacancies:

• Inventory Clerk
• Electrical Engineer
• Welder
• Painter
• Electrical Assembler
• Final Assembler
• General Assembler
• Manufacturing process Engineer
• Plant Manager
• Electrical Process Engineer
• Service Technician
• Mechanical Engineer

GreenPower, a Canadian company, began producing its fleet of electric school buses at its South Charleston location nearly two years ago. Two of the company’s electric bus models – the BEAST and the Nano BEAST – are produced locally.

The South Charleston facility is the only electric school bus manufacturing site in West Virginia, according to officials.

The launch of the South Charleston plant was strategic in nature, company representatives said at the time of its opening.

“Our West Virginia operations will serve as a cornerstone for U.S. manufacturing to deliver electric school buses to our customers on the East Coast and adjacent regions,” Brendan Riley, President and Director of Green Power, said in a release.

In June 2024, GreenPower delivered the first BEAST electric school bus manufactured at the South Charleston plant to Kanawha County Schools. The delivery came six months after the facility released the first four locally-manufactured Nano BEASTs.

“The first BEAST helped us verify our production process in the plant just like the first Nano BEAST production last year verified that line process,” Wendell White, GreenPower’s Vice President of Production, said. “We can and are now proceeding with a full manufacturing plan [for both models] at the South Charleston facility.”

In a release, GreenPower representatives said 19 of the state’s 55 county-wide school districts have placed orders for their electric school buses. In all, 37 electric buses have been ordered so far in West Virginia alone.

Anyone interested in a GreenPower manufacturing position may stop by the hiring event between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 6. More information about the recruiting event is available on Facebook.