Signs MoUs with Australian dealers.

Bosch announced its decision to discontinue collaboration on solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technologies with Ceres and to consider selling its 17.44% stake in the company which led to a sharp decline in the British firm's share price.

The company announced 2024 sales figures of USD 10.3 billion, a decrease of USD 300 million compared to 2023 figures of USD 10.6 billion. Adjusted EBITA rose by USD 40 million, to USD 885 million in 2024 (2023: USD 845 million). Financially, the company is healthy with an operating cash flow of USD 476 million and a sales backlog of USD 650 million.

New Jakarta office to strengthen marketing and sales operations.

In the 2000s, there were three major manufacturers of buses and bus bodies in the United Kingdom: Alexander Dennis of Scotland; Wrightbus of Northern Ireland; and Optare, a relatively young company based in the north of England. For a time, Optare probably accounted for a quarter of the buses and coaches produced in the UK. Optare entered the 2020s under a new name, Switch Mobility Ltd, signalling its intention to embrace the electric era wholeheartedly. However, among the British manufacturers, it remains firmly in third place: according to statistics provided by Switch, it sold 33 buses in 2022, 44 in 2023, and 125 in 2024. In that same period, Switch’s plant in England has produced more than two hundred vehicles, the vast majority of which were sold to various UK operators, including Stagecoach, Arriva, and many more. 

Reduced volumes in the truck and powertrain sectors, reduce 2024 revenues but lower operating costs deliver improved margins.

On 30 September 2024, Britain’s last remaining coal-fired power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar was closed down. Opened in 1968, the power station had a capacity of 2,000 MW and annual carbon emissions in the millions of tonnes when it was decommissioned. Today, local authorities and consortia have new ambitions for the old plants: to repurpose the existing infrastructure for the production of green hydrogen. That was the message carried away by news reporters who attended an open day at the Loughborough University campus on 8 November. Visitors got to see some mature products of the transition taking place in the east midlands. These were the fuel-cell-powered vehicles displayed by Intelligent Energy Ltd in front of its headquarters on the edge of the campus.

“Despite substantial investments, including GBP 25 million in UK government grants, the vision of vehicle manufacturing has failed,” the British startup said in a press release announcing its change of strategy.

DAF Trucks UK has been the market leader in the UK truck (trucks >6t) market for 30 years. T&BB analyses the reasons behind this continued success and poses the question, will DAF UK remain the market leader for the next 30 years as the industry transitions to zero emissions?

We know that new electric HGVs carry a significant upfront cost compared to that of their diesel ICE equivalents. DAF is aiming to leverage big data and AI to drive efficiency gains for operators, ameliorating that initial cost.

Levin (President and CEO of Scania) takes over the function from Harald Seidel, President of DAF Trucks. He will work closely with ACEA President Ola Källenius (Mercedes-Benz Group AG chairman) who is serving in his first term.

Thomas Hilse, President of the Firefighting Business Unit at the Iveco Group and CEO of Magirus has left the company with immediate effect.