He takes over from Chief Operating Officer Thomas Biringer, who led Schwarzmüller on an interim basis after the resignation of former CEO Roland Hartwig in 2023.

According to the EU, the dates of application depend on vehicle type: “30 months for new types of cars and vans, and 42 months for new cars and vans. 48 months for new types of buses, trucks and trailers, and 60 months for new buses, lorries and trailers. 30 months for new systems, components or separate technical units to be fitted in cars and vans, and 48 months for those to be fitted in buses, lorries and trailers.”

No further details have been announced, except that the two partners will initially keep between 650 and 950 Van Hool workers in employment.

Having announced its ‘E-Mobility kit’ in 2023 – a portfolio of advanced electric drives, auxiliary components and complete systems for medium and heavy-duty commercial vehicles – ZF says it plans to ramp up production from 2025 to meet demand.

The Krone Commercial Vehicle Division generated EUR1.7 billion in revenues, an increase of 22.9% compared with the previous year of EUR1.374 billion.

The investment will fund the further development of Range Energy’s electric axle technology for semi-trailers, which can reduce fuel consumption in a diesel tractor-trailer combo or energy consumption in a fully-electric one.

The manufacturer has said that "an inheritance dispute" among shareholders and the Van Hool family "has complicated the planned actions"; the implementation of its recovery plan "in a business continuity situation is no longer viable”.

New energy commercial vehicles (NECVs), comprising mainly hydrogen, electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, increased by 32% to 447,000 units.

‘T/T Pair’ is a 7-way socket which is designed to replace Phillips’ ‘QCS2’ socket for hooking up a semi-trailer to a tractor unit.

Delegates of Hydrogen UK’s annual conference, held at the National Conference Centre in Birmingham on 12 March, left the event with no doubts about the future of the burgeoning hydrogen economy. Opening the conference, Clare Jackson, CEO of Hydrogen UK, declared that “net zero is not possible without hydrogen”. The burning question is, will the UK have any significant part in its development?

On 14 March, Schmitz Cargobull Ltd took over the King’s Suite of the Hilton Metropole, situated near the NEC in Birmingham, to launch the ‘S.KOe Cool’, an all-new fully-electric refrigerated semi-trailer which is the first of its kind to receive type approval for the European market.

Krone has teamed up with Austrian logistics company LKW Walter, to introduce access to electronic consignment notes (eCMR) on its trailers. Krone has equipped LKW trailers with a QR code, which gives access to the eCMR. The QR code can be scanned on a smartphone (smart device) through the Krone Smart Assistant ap