Between 12-13 June, Schmitz Cargobull AG hosted members of the press at its trailer factory in Vreden, located just on the border with the Netherlands. The ostensible reason for our visit was to receive a sneak preview of the company’s newest transport refrigeration product, which will be unveiled at the next IAA Transportation in Hanover: in fact, we learned much more about the company’s plans to expand and modernise its trailer factory, where it produces the ‘S.KO’ refrigerated models and the ‘S.BO’ dry freight range.

Located in Byhalia, a town located in Marshall County (just on the Mississippi-Tennessee border near Memphis), the five-hundred-acre site will accommodate a two-million-square-foot plant by 2027.

Already in production since late 2023 for delivery to São Paulo, the eO500U is designed, developed and built at the company’s facilities in ABC Paulista, São Caetano do Sul.

Among the most requested modifications in 2023 were to the light VW Delivery 4x4 truck model, and the Volksbus bus chassis.

Somewhere in the industrial estate of a small city in western Poland, there is a charging station which was installed by me. The site of the installation was near the headquarters of Ekoenergetyka, the manufacturer of the charging station in question, and the hosts of a conference which brought together several hundred guests involved or interested in the development of Europe’s charging infrastructure. The event, organised by an industry association called CharIn, was the third such conference and “testival” to have taken place in Europe since 2023.

Approximately 360,000 square feet of the existing plant, which measures 1.42m square feet, will be given over to the ‘Accelera’ zero emission brand.

Under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), Enva will contribute its national battery collection network with Altilium’s recycling expertise, recovering precious metals and other critical materials such as lithium, which will be used in the production of new batteries.

Reyco Granning specialises in manufacturing suspension solutions for heavy and medium-duty vehicles, including for motorhomes, emergency response vehicle, speciality trailers, commercial trucks and buses.

To the west of Bursa, in a village called Hasanağa lies the headquarters of Karsan. Though the company’s history extends back to 1966, it is only in the past decade that it has emerged as an original equipment manufacturer of note in the commercial vehicle industry. Today, it has earned a reputation as a “dark horse” among the Turkish manufacturers, a previously unknown company which has very quickly surged to prominence in the domestic and European markets.

Production may be possibly at its site car factory in Nošovice, Czech Republic, although not plant has been mentioned at present.

The Vector HE 17 offers refrigeration capacity output at 16kW coupled with a significant reduction in both noise levels (by 50%) and fuel consumption (by 30%) compared to the Vector 1550.

HVS announced a new deal to supply 30 fuel cell HGVs to UK logistics company, Explore Plant & Transport Solutions. Furthermore, the agreement encompasses a maintenance, servicing and driver training (safe use of hydrogen) contract.