KAIST will be exporting the OLEV technology to the United States for the first time since its development.
The city of McAllen of Texas will be stationing 3 OLEV buses in the 10 mile (16km) route from 2013 from OLEV Technology Corporation.
The OLEV Technology Corporation based in Massachusetts and is a venture company that KAIST has 30% share of and has the OLEV technology. The corporation has sole license in commercialization of OLEV in the United States.
The OLEV technology has been commercialized in the city of Seoul since July of 2011. But this is the first instance of foreign implementation of the OLEV technology.
The reason for the city of McAllen adopting the OLEV is because of the support of the Department of Transportation. The Department of Transportation has been supporting Green Energy Research and Future Transportation Technology Development projects since 2009.
A total of 266 research proposals were submitted in 2011 and out of that 46 were selected and given a total of 112 million USD.
Representative of McAllen city commented “the operation of OLEV buses developed by KAIST will result in decrease in energy consumption and emission of greenhouse gases. The OLEV technology can be applied to existing diesel buses and therefore has high cost efficiency”.