Following the framework sale of the e-Jest electric shuttle bus in the right-hand drive market in Japan earlier this year - Karsan is now exploring entry into the UK market with first deliveries planned for 2024.

Speaking with Deniz Cetin, Chief Commercial Officer at Karsan Automotive & Board Member at Group Companies at Cenex (2023), T&BB was informed that Karsan has bid on autonomous electric bus contracts (tenders) in Spain, Israel, Qatar and Canada. Deniz confirmed that Karsan recently delivered an autonomous bus to Istanbul which comes off the back of two successful autonomous bus trials in Norway and the USA.

With production expected to be completed by the end of 2026, the USD 550 million investment is expected to create 380 jobs and support the increased production of CV tyres, all equipped with RFID (radio frequency identification) tags that enable more efficient asset management, including retreading.

New trails of electric parcel delivery vans will take place shortly ahead of an announcement by First Hydrogen of when and where it will to start series production. First Hydrogen says the aim of the trials is to gather more data on fuel consumption, usage and efficiency, to calculate the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) more accurately.

The Ferndale facility has the capacity to produce up to 850 ‘Vicinity Classic’ and ‘Vicinity Lightning’ (i.e., ICE and EV) buses and 6,250 ‘VMC 1200’ battery electric trucks per year.

The Satellite Technical Centre is to focus on end-to-end software, system engineering, electronics, and mechanical engineering, addressing core market trends in electrification, autonomous driving, and reinvention of interior equipment, notably lighting systems.

Whilst South Korea’s biggest tyre manufacturer prepares for the launch of its new electric bus tyre range later this year, we decided to have a closer look at the rise of this tyre giant hailing from the East.

The new test rig is specifically designed to validate its hollow fibre membrane products for its OEM customers.

The new test centre, jointly operated by FEV Group, in Oued Zem complements two cold weather sites in Finland, north of the Arctic Circle.

The JV aims to manufacture battery cells for commercial electric vehicles at a 21-gigawatt hour (GWh) factory that is anticipated to cost between USD 2-3 billion. The emphasis is on pioneering better battery chemistries that last longer, are safer, lower in cost and are more environmentally sustainable, preferably without the need for nickel and cobalt raw materials.

The prototype truck is a 560-horsepower plug-in hybrid which pulls an 18-metre trailer installed with solar panels.

There are now seven autonomous FH trucks operating at the site, managed remotely via a touch screen in the wheel loader.