These tests were designed to see how the vehicle copes in extreme temperatures and to try out the newly developed thermal management system. The engineers were also interested to monitor how the fuel cell system operates at extreme altitudes.

The Italian public transport operator, SASA, has ordered nine 18-metre-long articulated buses with a fuel cell range extender which will be used in northern Italy from the end of this year with deliveries scheduled between the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024.

Produced in Spain, the BYD-Castrosua 12-metre eBuses has been built on the BYD electric chassis with Castrasua 'Nelec' electric bus bodywork.

At the first UITP summit in four years, we report on developments related to two topics: electric vehicles and artificial intelligence.

Okan Baş, CEO of Karsan at UITP in Barcelona, Spain, announced the company had sold its 700th electric vehicle very recently and that now, with a presence in 20 countries, its goal in 2023 is to double its e-bus sales of 330 units in 2022.

The ‘Thermo HV’, which is designed specifically for electric vehicles, accommodates an input voltage between 600 and 875 volts and delivers a variable heat output of up to 12 kW.

The first driver-supervised road tests are taking place in Israel with an ‘eCentro’ midibus supplied by Otokar.

The company had 4 vehicles on display including two electric buses,the 12m Citivolt and the NovoCiti Volt, Citiport CNG and the Big e prototype.

The 'RE2' electric ramp and the '028d' sliding door were presented by the Irizar subsidiary at the show in Barcelona earlier in June.

T&BB spoke to Lind, who is Senior Vice President and Head of Bus and Coach at Scania, at the UITP Global Public Transport Summit in Barcelona, Spain earlier this month.

The T&BB team attended UITP in Barcelona to bring you the latest news which included the debut of the first electric version of the 13m suburban Crossway intercity bus (Crossway Le Elec), and which was accompanied by a 9.5m electric urban midibus from the E-Way range. 

The eCitaro fuel cell utilises a battery-electric drive system with high-performance NMC3 batteries while the fuel cell acts as a hydrogen generator to extend the range. With a range of 350km on a single charge, the articulated version offers space for 128 passengers.