Sales of medium and large buses and coaches contracted almost 50% to 87 units in the fourth quarter of 2020 from 171 units a year earlier, resulting in a 56% drop in full-year sales to 275 units.

Sales of rigid trucks over 2 tons gvw, excluding pickup trucks, increased by over 20% to 4,195 in the fourth quarter of 2020 after declining by almost 24% to 3,493 units in the same period of the previous year.

The Malaysian market for light vans and minibuses fell by almost 19% to 1,192 units in the fourth quarter of 2020 from already weak-year earlier sales of 1,369 units, resulting in a fall of almost 45% to 3,093 units over the full year from 5,586 units in 2019.

Sales of pickup trucks rebounded strongly in the fourth quarter of 2020, by over 37% to 13,145 units from 9,580 units in the same period of the previous year, wiping out most of the earlier declines and resulting in a fall in full-year sales of just 3.7% to 33,034 units.

Sales of pickup trucks declined by almost 17% to 13,227 units in the fourth quarter of 2020 from 15,847 units in the same period of the previous year, resulting in full-year sales falling by more than 41% to 40,187 units from strong year-earlier sales of 68,355 units.

Japan’s market for medium and large buses and coaches continued to shrink in the fourth quarter of 2020, by almost 39% to 1,564 units after declining by 20% to 2,550 units in the same period of last year, as demand for public service buses remained depressed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Japan’s medium and heavy truck market over 4.5 tons gvw increased by almost 13% to 40,062 units in the fourth quarter of 2020 after declining by almost 20% to 35,518 units a year earlier, reflecting a sharp rebound in fixed investment and exports.

Scania has purchased a truck manufacturing plant in China's Jiangsu province to serve as a regional production centre for heavy commercial vehicles.

PT Transportasi Jakarta (Transjakarta), the main public bus consortium for Indonesia’s capital city Jakarta, in December announced it wants to have 10,000 electric buses in service by 2030, according to local reports.

Toyota Motor Corporation of Toyota, Japan has agreed with three major convenience store operators in Japan to begin trials of hydrogen-powered fuel-cell delivery trucks later this year.

Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation, headquartered in Kawasaki City in Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture, which is majority-owned by Daimler AG of Stuttgart, Germany and operates under the brand name Fuso, launched the new Canter in the United Arab Emirates in December.

Isuzu Motors Ltd, headquartered in Tokyo’s Shinagawa district and Kyokuto Kaihatsu Kogyo Company, based in Nishinomiya, Hyogo prefecture, have developed a new rear-body monitoring system for heavy trucks using connected technologies.