What a difference a year can make! A year ago, Truck & Bus Builder attended the “E-Bus Test” in the German city of Bonn, organised yearly by the German magazine Omnibus Spiegel. It is a fantastic opportunity for European journalists to ride on and test drive the latest electric buses, some of which have yet to launch in the market. In this regard, the 2025 edition of the e-bus test was no different. However, the outlook for the electric bus market in Europe is less certain now than it was even just twelve months ago. A representative of Stadtwerke Bonn, the operator of Bonn’s urban transport system which hosted the e-bus test at its depot, told attendees at the event that it is no longer looking for incentives to purchase electric buses from the European Union. Those dried up a while ago, and the city of Dortmund – to give just one example – has gone back to purchasing diesel buses. There is not a great deal of hope either that the new government in Germany will announce further support for electric buses and charging infrastructure.

With the standard tank option storing LNG, the Touring can cover more than 1,000 km before needing to refuel.

Higer imports buses to South America via a JV in Brazil.

Another city in Brazil, this time a city with hot temperatures of up to 41 deg. C, Cuiabá of Mato Grosso State, has begun testing China’s Higer electric 12m low floor bus, the Azure A12BR e-bus.

This mid-sized low-floor urban city electric bus has been developed for the European bus market. The bus ranges from 8.7 to 9 metres and builds on the 12-metre Higer Azure series imported by the Harris Group in Ireland.

Higer completed the delivery of 780 Higer Buses worth USD55m to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under the “Belt and Road Initiative”, signifying the largest ever bus export from China to Saudi Arabia.

TEVX Motors* is building a factory Pecém to be able to locally assemble the new electric buses for the city of Cascavel, Paraná State.

Chassis are shipped from Suzhou in China for bodying by local body builder, Del Monte Motor Works Inc.

The trials follow the announcement of a new manufacturing site to be built in Pecém.

ZF do Brasil Ltda, headquartered in Sorocaba, São Paulo state, announced its parent company, ZF Group is the main drivetrain supplier to Higer Bus Company of Suzhou, China, for an electric bus that has started trials / tests with a city bus operator in the city of São Paulo; full scale operations of several electric Higer Bus buses are expected to start during the first half of 2022.

The new Touring, made in China, has an increased front-axle load capacity of 500 kg along with improvements to the powertrain and an adaptive cruise control function.

Higer Bus Co Ltd has started on-road field tests of its full-electric city buses in Brazil.