Karsan Autonomous e-ATAK Level 4 shuttle bus now in operation in the USA and Norway.

The Slovakian start-up will collaborate with the Polish manufacturer in developing a prototype battery cell which will then be tested during 2023.

Upon completion in 2024, the Gigafactory will expand the Polish company's annual production capacity of batteries for electric buses to 5 GWh.

The Finnish company's technology is being piloted in a six-month project which will test its performance in the demanding weather conditions of the far north of Norway.

The following is based on an exclusive interview T&BB conducted with Johannes Ilg, VP Service Sales Management at Voith Turbo, the automotive technology division of the Voith Group.

Wright, who founded the company with his father in 1946, is credited with leading the design of the first British-built electric bus in 1999 and, in 2015, the world’s first fuel-cell electric double-deck bus.

Dr Srinath Rengarajan has been appointed as Senior Manager of Corporate Product & Strategy.

The return of the IAA (Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung) commercial vehicle show in 2022 is remarkable in itself, given that the last exhibition was held in 2018; the biannual event should have taken place again in 2020, but it was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

An undisclosed sum has been invested in Optibus, a software developer specialising in public transportation management tools for planning workable routes, timetables and rotas.

The automotive corporation has set up a new company called PowerCo which will be responsible for production at the facility - set to begin in 2025 - and for global marketing of battery products for the group.

At the end of 2022, Dr Holger Klein will replace Wolf-Henning Scheider as CEO and Dr Peter Laier will replace Wilhelm Rehm as head of Commercial Vehicle Solutions.

Roadbotics primarily advises local authorities on road maintenance by identifying priority areas of concern with its AI technology, which employs machine-learning to analyse images of roads taken from cameras.