PLYMOUTH, Mich. — At a Plymouth Township warehouse on the old Burroughs campus, Pareto Mobility is assembling what founder AJ Kumar describes as the first fully flat-floor commercial bus in North America, and the work is adding manufacturing jobs.
Kumar, the company’s founder and CEO, said the Step-Free layout drops cabin steps and slopes so people with wheelchairs, walkers or other mobility aids can board without a conventional wheelchair lift. The firm markets the coach as a completely flat low-floor commercial bus.
According to a DBusiness account of the opening, manufacturing and assembly occupy roughly 50,000 square feet on that Burroughs office campus. Kumar said Michigan is making commercial buses again for the first time since Champion Bus shut down in the state in 2021.
Local reports this week showed the plant’s first finished coach getting last details before it ships to a dealer. Kumar said passengers can board up front and sit anywhere because the cabin has no steps.
Township Supervisor Chuck Curmi pointed to Pareto as the technology, research and light-manufacturing mix Plymouth Township wants, recalling that Burroughs once ran engineering and production together at the Plymouth Road site. Chamber leaders also praised putting the long-empty industrial space back to work.
Company materials say Step-Free coaches will move through dealers nationwide. Buyers include transit systems, senior-living operators, medical campuses and shuttle fleets, with U.S. and Canadian deliveries as output grows in Plymouth, Mich.
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