www.chinabuses.org: China's bus-maker Zonda Group and Qingshan Energy Research Institute have jointly invested two billion yuan ($292 million) to set up an electric vehicle (EV) production base in Nanjing, capital of eastern Jiangsu province, Xinhua News reported yesterday.

The project's first phase of 600-million-yuan investment is expected to produce pure electric double-decker buses in order to meet the zero-emission target of the urban public transportation system.

The double-decker bus model is currently in trial production, and will be mass-produced and launched to the market soon after construction of the first-phase facility is completed.

The production base is likely to provide 1,500 new jobs and realize annual sales revenue of four billion yuan.