Ford Motor Company, under a comprehensive redesign of its global business structure, has announced it plans to exit the commercial heavy truck business in South America.

Scania AB inaugurated a new THB800m (USD26m) assembly plant in Thailand in February, as it looks to expand its presence in the region’s truck and bus market.

DRiV Incorporated is the name of the future publicly traded Aftermarket and Ride Performance company due to launch in the second half of 2019, following Tenneco Inc’s acquisition of Federal Mogul Corporation in October 2018 and its decision to separate into two independent companies.

Hino Motors Ltd, a Toyota Group Company, plans to invest JPY11.5bn (USD105m) in a new integrated research and development centre and production hub in Thailand, with construction set to begin in July 2019.

TM4, the Boucherville, motor and inverter joint venture between Dana Incorporated and Quebec-Hydro has reached a major milestone with the production of its 12,000th TM4 SUMO electric powertrain system for heavy commercial vehicles in China.

January saw the start of pre-production assembly of Hino’s XL-Series Class7/8 trucks in the USA on a brand new production line installed in a new plant in Mineral Wells.

Sweden's Scania has supplied a 16-litre engine to support a new Australian trial of renewable diesel fuel. The fuel will be made from waste plastic, old vehicle tyres, agricultural and forestry waste, as well as bio-solids. The trial is aimed at achieving commercial scale production.

Fahrzeugwerk Bernard Krone GmbH & Co KG is doubling its production capacity for swap bodies and Dry Liners at its production plant in Herzlake.

Trailer and bodybuilder, Cartwright Group, has invested in a fully programmable robotic welder to drive up productivity and efficiency at its South Manchester production facility.

Schmitz Cargobull AG claims to be the first trailer manufacturer in Europe to produce single-piece Ferroplast (insulated) side walls for refrigerated box bodies with a total length of 16.80 metres.

Pailton Engineering, the steering system manufacturer, has invested in a low volume production cell specifically for small batch orders and pre-production sample manufacturing.

Scania AB is developing a fuel cell refuse truck together with Renova AB, a waste management services company owned by a consortium of municipalities in western Sweden.