The truck in question was a Volvo ‘FM Electric’ 8x4 rigid with a tag tridem configuration, mounted with an ‘eBSF’ concrete pump, with a reach of 42 metres, installed by Putzmeister.

Production and sales of the OptiLock range will be transferred to a location in Nieuwerkerk aan den Ijssel in the Netherlands.

The Volvo Group - which includes Renault Trucks, Mack Trucks, Prevost, and Nova Bus - saw a slight decline in its financial results across the board, with its net sales falling by 3% to SEK527bn (approximately EUR46bn) in 2024.

Locations affected by the measures include Gilching, Hengersberg, Neubrandenberg, and Utting, in addition to the headquarters.

In the next several years, Siemens will establish a “Global AI Manufacturing Technologies Research and Development Center for Battery Production” which will initially focus on electric vehicle battery production.

Through Bluetooth, the new smart system links with various devices and onboard systems, enabling real-time weight monitoring.

The financial results of Traton - which includes the MAN, Scania, International, and Volkswagen Truck & Bus brands - remained steady compared to the year before, with sales revenues improving by just 1% from EUR46,872m in 2023 to EUR47,473m in 2024.

At the event, the company announced that it plans to commence commercial availability of the propane-powered stripped chassis in the second quarter of 2026.

The Israeli company successfully raised USD36.4m from offering its shares to a group of strategic investors, which “strengthens [the company’s] cash position ahead of planned vehicle deliveries”.

The company recorded a 28% rise in profitability from 2023, and turnover rose from EUR 106 million in 2023 to EUR 161 million in 2024, an increase of 52 percent!

Readers of Truck & Bus Builder will be accustomed by now to news stories reporting the demise of yet another electric vehicle startup. Particularly in Britain and in the USA, several new companies in receipt of millions of dollars of investors’ money – either through venture capital funding rounds or the stock market – have faltered in the past year, reducing their business activities to a fraction of their original scope or ceasing to trade altogether. Yet, in late 2024, while all of this was going on, a small British firm successfully raised a sum of GBP17.3m from investors who could justifiably have refused to cough up a single penny towards yet another electric vehicle proposition. Bucking the trend, Sunswap Ltd is showing that a new entrant can bring out a product that is economically as well as environmentally sustainable.

An ‘eTGX’ tractor unit will be put on the road, pulling DPD semi-trailers on a route from the firm’s delivery hub in Hinckley in central England.