Kazakhstan will start producing
battery electric locomotives. Wabtec, a world leader in the field of transport
and logistics, is already developing a new product in the field of green
energy. The project is at the design stage. It is expected that by 2026 the
production of electric locomotives using eco-friendly technologies will be
established in the U.S., and a little later will begin to be introduced in
Kazakhstan - on the basis of a Locomotive Kurastyru Zauyty (LKZ) in
Astana.
“Right now, Wabtec is finalizing the design and
we will move into the production phase. I believe that by 2026 we should
be able to make the first battery electric locomotive out of the U.S. and then
we will obviously move the production over to LKZ facility here, and we will be
able to produce such locomotives for LKZ in the future,” said Nurlybek
Akhmetov, the spokesperson for the Locomotive Kurastyru Zauyty, Wabtec Company.
U.S. company intends to open engineering center
in Kazakhstan
Moreover, the U.S. company expanded the manufacturing
capabilities of Locomotive Kurastyru Zauyty in Astana: for this year the
company is on track to produce 90 locomotives, which a double what Wabtec
produced last year. Earlier, during a meeting with Kassym-Jomart Tokayev
in New York, Rafael Santana, CEO of Wabtec, announced plans to invest almost $1
billion in the transport and logistics sector of Kazakhstan.
“One of the projects within those investments
will be that Wabtec is planning to open an engineering center in Kazakhstan to
make it become one of the centers of excellence for locomotive design and
maintenance. We’ve been working in Kazakhstan for quite some time now. Obviously,
the company does believe that the investment climate is really good, and we do
believe that there is a potential opportunity for future growth, not only with
Kazakhstan but also with the entire region. Wabtec chose Kazakhstan as a hub
for its future business operations,” added Akhmetov.
