Yancheng, Jiangsu-based private automaker Zonda Group announced Wednesday in Beijing that it will start mass production of self-developed electric buses in 12 to 18 months, after becoming the first manufacturer to get a green light from the regulator in July.

The company received a confirmation from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on July 17 saying that it could go ahead with building electric bus production facilities, with an annual capacity of 3,000 units, Xu Lianguo, the group's chairman, told reporters.

"The construction will be completed in one to one-and-a-half years … We've already got a $150 million order from a US company," Xu said.

Domestically, the company said it has signed 160 million yuan ($25.1 million) worth of orders for its electric buses at the price of 2 million yuan a unit.

"Generally, the demand overseas is much larger than in China," Xu noted, saying that there is no problem finding buyers overseas even at the price of 3 million yuan a unit.

The electric bus' prices are still too high to achieve good sales in China, experts told the Global Times Wednesday.

Battery cost alone is 800,000 yuan for a Zonda bus, nearly half of the aggregate vehicle price, said Shen Yun, leader of a research project on new energy vehicle development in China under the Development Research Center of the State Council.

"Current battery's lifecycle, which is around two years, is too short to be cost-efficient. If it can be extended to five years, the costs will go down," he said.

Beijing has planned a total of 400 electric buses since 2008, but only 100 of them are in service, said Li Jun, a technology expert at Beijing Public Transport Holdings, the capital's bus operator.

The difficulty for the rollout is a lack of recharge stations or posts because the construction costs, including land cost, are too high, Li said.

There is only one battery swap station currently near Beitucheng in Beijing, he said.