Volvo Financial Services (VFS) América do Sul based in Curitiba, Paraná, is now 30 years old on the Brazilian market with managed assets in 2023 totalling BRA 22 billion (USD4.4bn).

Since its market introduction in 2003, 89,515 units have been registered, of which 85,461 are light trucks and 4,054 are medium trucks, which means an average of 4,475 units per year.

The vehicles were tailor-made for the Middle East market and eighty units of the coach bodies on the Volksbus 17.240 OT chassis were equipped with a removable roof.

Launched in 2003, the company says the VM represents a watershed in Volvo's Brazilian operation. It was the brand's first semi-heavy vehicle in the country, being designed and produced exclusively in the Curitiba (PR) industrial complex, one of Volvo's main factories around the world.

Habas is a branch of a 67-year-old holding company that specialises in producing industrial gases. The holding company decided to invest in the automotive sector in 2021 and set up a bus-building arm of the corporation. The first port of call was establishing a factory in the Manisa Organised Industrial Zone, in Manisa, Turkey.

T&BB decided to have a closer look at the world’s 4th biggest tyre manufacturer as it looks to expand its global presence through fleet digitalisation, product range and aftermarket services in the context of the impending Euro VII regulation.

Executives claimed that they have an annual production capacity of 5,000 buses and a strategy to target the Middle Eastern and African markets.

The first Quester was launched in 2013 in Thailand and the model is now available in 46 countries across four continents.

'Mercedes-Benz Argentina' started operations in Argentina in 1951.

Opened in September 2013, this facility has been servicing local demand and has been supplying 31 different countries in Europe, the Middle and Far East, Africa and South America for over a decade. Krone says that 63 per cent of the trailers produced at this factory are for export.

The truck model delivered was the Volkswagen 6x2e-Delivery electric truck at 14 tons gvw.

The special edition truck is to mark 10 years of operations in Brazil and just 120 of these limited edition models are to be produced and sold.