Germany / Belgium – The latest generation of Mercedes-Benz Sprinter now features an optional 'High Load' rear axle, which allows greater carrying capacity. For the coach built minibus sector this represents an ability to run high specification coach style Sprinters with a passenger capacity of 21 and over 40kg per person luggage capacity. The new City 75 incorporating the high load axle can achieve up to 38 passenger capacity. It replaces the tri-axle Sprinter 77 which was a great development but ended up too costly for the market – it was a similar cost to a 9.5m ADL Enviro200.

Till Oberwörder, Head of Daimler Buses, cited the industry as currently being in good shape with both sales and orders and it was the company's intention to offer still wider ranging services to provide added value for customers. He said the recent 25th anniversary of the Tourismo coach had roughly coincided with a production milestone of 55,555 units of the Citaro city bus and confirmed large orders were still coming in. New technology in the form of 3D Printing had been adopted and the range of spare parts components now available was 200 and continuing to grow. He said key benefits were reduced requirements for parts stocking, shipping costs and rapid availability.