These buses are part of the Exqui.City 24 series, which are intended for use on the T Zen 4 and T Zen 5 Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lines in the Paris metropolitan area.

The company showcased a new “inward gliding” or ‘IG’ door and a “slim line” door concept.

At Euro Bus Expo 2024, T&BB spoke with a new name in the turnkey electrification sector: VEV Services Ltd of London, incorporated two years ago and starting business at the beginning of last year.

This order follows a competitive e-bidding process conducted through the Government tendering system.

The company is investing EUR 600 million to transform the facility into a hub for manufacturing electric and hydrogen-powered buses, including the Heuliez GX Elec, Iveco E-Way and the new E-Way-H2 hydrogen model.

The budget is aimed at incentivizing around 28.81 lakh electric vehicles over the next two years!

The investment is to be used to support RSB’s plans for growth, focusing on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and expanding its global operations.

This multi-year investment, said to exceed USD100m, aims to double the current manufacturing footprint.

Vehicle production also saw a rise of 13.8% in the first half of FY 2024-25.

At the 2024 Euro Bus Expo, T&BB sat down with Paul Davies, the CEO of Alexander Dennis, to discuss the company’s new product range.

The ‘StreetDeck Ultroliner’, which was originally launched in 2014, will now be offered with a Cummins ‘B6.7’ engine, replacing the six-cylinder Daimler ‘OM936’ which was used before.

At last year’s Busworld, Voith Turbo celebrated the 70th anniversary of its ‘DIWA’ line of automatic transmissions for urban and suburban buses. The German manufacturer had just brought out the latest addition to the DIWA range, the ‘DIWA NXT’. This reimagining of the city bus transmission, incorporating a mild hybrid system (optional), appeared on the scene when it still seemed that fully electric was the only way to go. Markus Bischoff – who is responsible for the DIWA product line – believes the company made a “brave decision” in supporting the development of the mild-hybrid transmission; today, he feels vindicated by the resurgence of interest in hybrids. “The main request we get from our customers,” Bischoff told Truck & Bus Builder, “is affordability.”