One week before Christmas, Quebec flagship Prévost Car is filing the largest contract in its history under the tree. Concluded with the City of New York, the order provides for the manufacture of 250 coaches of the new H3-45 model by 2026 with purchase options for 131 additional vehicles.
The contract, estimated at $447 million including parts and services, will alone create some 150 jobs at the Sainte-Claire factory, in Bellechasse. The news comes at the right time for the almost century-old company which is preparing to launch the festivities of its first century of existence.
The Prévost coaches acquired by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) of New York will be used to transport users from the outskirts to Manhattan. Already established as one of the main players in its field in North America, the Bellechasse company confirms, through this contract, its favorable positioning with one of the largest public transport agencies in the world.
Coincidence of the calendar: Prévost announced two years ago, to the day, the signing of what was, before today, the most lucrative contract in its history. This agreement, also concluded with the MTA, already provided for the delivery of 307 coaches between 2020 and 2022. At the end of this contract, more than 720 coaches manufactured by Prévost were already plying the streets of New York.
Prévost therefore occupies a central place in the ambitious project of the New York transport agency, which wants to revamp its service, particularly in the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn, to improve travel times and the comfort of its users. In the Queens district alone, half a million people board the MTA service every day, during the week, which also manages the imposing subway of the American megacity.
Although the government played no role in awarding this contract to Prévost, two ministers, Bernard Drainville and Martine Biron, made the trip to highlight this feat of arms. Prime Minister François Legault, by video, saluted “the workers of Sainte-Claire who make our nation shine in North America. »
Founded by Eugène Prévost in 1924, Prévost passed into the hands of industrialist Paul Norman in 1957. Since 2004, the company has belonged to Volvo, which itself became the property, in 2010, of the Chinese conglomerate Zhejiang Geely Holding. It employs a thousand people in Sainte-Claire, in addition to having factories on American soil.