Volkswagen Trucks and Buses presented at the NTU National Seminar, held in Brasilia at the end of August, the first 15m city bus with second directional front axle in the country.

A national survey of 449 fleet operating companies conducted by the Ecuadorian magazine, Buen Viaje, specialized in tourism and bus operations, which represents 56.5% of the total of 709 dedicated to passenger transportation, revealed that the vast majority of buses in use in the country has bodies produced by domestic manufacturers.

Metra Metropolitan Transport System (Metra), the operator of the ABD Corridor and its extension Diadema-Brooklin in São Paulo, in partnership with UBus, has launched a new ‘on-demand’ city bus service operating a new line between São Bernardo city and São Paulo on the São Bernardo - Berrini corridor (33km).

The capital and largest city of Peru, Lima, in June received 300 buses with Caio Induscar Apache VIP bus bodies and Mercedes-Benz OF-1721 high-floor chassis for the Pan American Games, which are taking place there between July 26 and August 11.

Marcopolo SA reported revenues of  BRA898.6m (USD224m) in the first quarter of this year, which is an increase of 17.5% on BRA764.8m (USD191m) registered in the same period of 2018.

Volvo Buses Latin America Ltda has delivered the first 336 buses (202 articulated and 134 bi-articulated) of the 700 new buses ordered last November for Transmilenio operations in Bogotá; the vehicles started operations in June.

Battery and electric vehicle manufacturer, BYD North America Inc unveiled a new transit bus and a new coach at BusCon 2019, held last month

Daimler Buses is to supply the Romanian capital of Bucharest with 130 Mercedes-Benz Citaro hybrid buses with deliveries starting in May 2020.

Scania Mexico has supplied 37 gas-powered buses to the Bus Rapid Transit system in Puebla– where they are to supplement the 27 Scania articulated diesel buses, supplied in 2015, operating on the 32km Red Urbana de Transporte Articulado system in the city of Puebla. 

Bridgestone do Brasil Indústria e Comércio Ltda has expanded its bus and truck tyre range in Brazil with the launch of the M842 radial tyre for use on steering axles on trucks and buses and the L325 tyre, designed for use on truck drive axles for short- and medium-distance applications.

Mellor Coachcraft Ltd, a manufacturer of accessible low floor vehicles, is to launch a new niche product at Busworld Europe 2019 this month, designed specifically for the demand responsive transportation market.

Following its launch at the Global Public Transport Summit in Stockholm (organised by UITP in June this year), the hydrogen-fuelled Solaris Urbino 12 Hydrogen immediately underwent trials by operators in Austria, Italy and Germany.