Tenglong Automobile Partners with Zhongba Group to Bring New Energy Buses to the Middle East

As governments across the Middle East accelerate their push toward sustainable infrastructure and cleaner urban mobility, Tenglong Automobile is proud to announce a strategic distribution partnership with Zhongba Group, a Guangzhou-based international conglomerate with an established operational presence across the GCC, Turkey, East Africa, Europe, and beyond. This partnership represents a deliberate and well-timed move by Tenglong to deepen its footprint in one of the world's most active markets for new energy vehicle adoption — and to do so through a partner that already has the regional relationships, local knowledge, and cross-sector credibility to open doors that a manufacturer working independently from China cannot easily access.

About Zhongba Group

Founded in 2010, Zhongba Group has grown into a diversified multinational whose business portfolio spans aviation, energy, steel, logistics, pharmaceutical machinery, pulp and paper, and transportation — a range of sectors that reflects both the scale of the group's ambitions and the depth of its operational experience. With a strategic presence in the GCC region, Zhongba Group forges strong partnerships and delivers tailored solutions across diverse industries, fostering sustainable development and driving economic growth.

Crucially for this partnership, transportation is not a peripheral activity for Zhongba Group — it sits at the centre of the group's investment strategy. In the transport sector, Zhongba Group is focused on the production and distribution of buses, both regular and electric, reflecting a clear dedication to sustainable and innovative transportation solutions across the MENA region.

This means Zhongba brings to the table not just a distribution network, but genuine sectoral understanding: an awareness of how bus procurement decisions are made in the region, who the key stakeholders are, and what buyers at the government, municipal, and operator level need from a supplier before they commit to a long-term vehicle partnership.

Since its founding, Zhongba Group has been guided by core values of honesty, quality, commitment, and teamwork — values built on transparency and trust with all stakeholders, and an unwavering commitment to surpassing expectations in every market the group operates in.

These principles mirror Tenglong Automobile's own approach to manufacturing quality and customer service, and form a solid foundation of shared culture on which this partnership can build.

The Middle East Opportunity: Policy, Investment, and Urgency

The Middle East — and the GCC in particular — is currently experiencing one of the most significant public transport investment cycles in its modern history. Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 framework has committed tens of billions of dollars to transport infrastructure, with electrification of urban bus fleets forming a key component of the kingdom's decarbonization roadmap. The UAE's Net Zero by 2050 strategic initiative is driving parallel investments in zero-emission mobility across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and the wider emirates. Qatar, following the infrastructure push surrounding the 2022 World Cup, continues to invest in modernising and expanding its public transit network. Kuwait and Bahrain are similarly advancing fleet electrification programs as part of broader smart-city and sustainability agendas.

What unites all of these national programs is a common need: reliable, high-quality electric buses and bus chassis from manufacturers capable of delivering at scale, offering flexible procurement models — including CKD assembly options for markets with local content preferences — and providing genuine after-sales support rather than simply shipping product and walking away.

This is precisely where the Tenglong and Zhongba partnership offers something distinctive.

Tenglong Automobile

As part of the ecosystem — one of the world's largest transportation equipment manufacturers — Tenglong Automobile brings engineering credibility, production capacity, and quality assurance that place it well above the typical tier of Chinese bus exporters. The company's product range covers the full spectrum of Middle Eastern transit requirements.

The AIMO V9 and V10 electric minibus series are compact, versatile platforms purpose-built for the high-frequency short-route demands of airports, hotels, business parks, and resort developments — segments where the GCC's hospitality and infrastructure boom is generating consistent fleet replacement demand. With motor options of 70kW and 80kW and seating configurations from 9 to 13 passengers, the AIMO range offers the flexibility that operators in these segments require.

For municipal and public transit applications, Tenglong's SYC-series electric city buses cover 6-metre through to 18-metre articulated configurations — giving transit authorities and bus operating companies a single-source solution regardless of whether they are serving a high-density BRT corridor or a lower-frequency suburban route. Both left-hand and right-hand drive configurations are available, ensuring compliance with the varying road standards across the GCC.

Beyond complete vehicles, Tenglong's bus chassis division offers bare platforms to coachbuilders and special vehicle manufacturers across the region who need a proven, export-certified Chinese chassis on which to build ambulances, mobile clinics, command vehicles, VIP coaches, and other bespoke body applications.

What This Partnership Means in Practice

Through this agreement, Zhongba Group will act as Tenglong Automobile's strategic distribution and business development partner across the Middle East. For procurement officers, fleet managers, and transit authority buyers in the region, this means having a locally present, Arabic-speaking partner who can engage with tenders, navigate regulatory requirements, coordinate demonstration units, and manage ongoing service relationships — all with the direct backing of Tenglong's manufacturing and technical teams in China.

For Tenglong, this partnership provides immediate access to Zhongba's established network of government and commercial relationships across the GCC, significantly compressing the market entry timeline that would otherwise be required to build equivalent reach independently. It also provides the kind of on-the-ground commercial intelligence — about upcoming tenders, buyer priorities, and competitive dynamics — that shapes product and pricing decisions in ways that are not possible from a distance.

A Partnership Built for the Long Term

Both Tenglong Automobile and Zhongba Group view this partnership not as a transactional distribution arrangement, but as a long-term platform for building a durable market position in the Middle East's new energy vehicle sector. The region's bus electrification transition is in its early stages — the scale of what is coming over the next decade, in terms of fleet replacement volumes and public transport expansion, represents an opportunity of genuine significance. Getting the right products, the right local partnerships, and the right service infrastructure in place now is what will determine which manufacturers and distributors are well-positioned when the bulk of that demand arrives.

Tenglong Automobile is committed to being one of them.

Procurement offices, fleet operators, transit authorities, and coachbuilders in the Middle East interested in learning more about Tenglong's electric bus and bus chassis product range — including CKD assembly options — are welcome to contact Zhongba Group directly or reach out to Tenglong Automobile's international sales team.

To learn more about Zhongba Group, visit www.zhongbagroup.com. To explore Tenglong Automobile's full product range, visit our Products page or contact our international business development team.