Over 90% of these will be zero-emission, drawn from the manufacturer’s ranges of battery electric and fuel cell electric single and double deckers.

The company said the project aims to not only automate the ordering processes but also monitor shipments and estimate, in real time, the arrival of components at assembly plants across Japan.

With series production set to begin at the end of the year, Habas representatives said that these vehicles will be produced predominantly for the CIS (Eurasian) market, namely Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

An initial production run of 400 models is now being delivered to dealerships across North America, including day cab and sleeper models.

Headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, and with offices in Gothenburg, Sweden and Brescia, Italy, Cespira was formed by the two companies to commercialise Westport’s high-pressure direct injection technology.

During its press conference at the show, Microvast announced that its planned battery cell and pack manufacturing plant in Clarksville, Tennessee will open between 2026 and 2027, more than three years later than originally planned.

Building on its hydrogen innovations since 2022, Karsan plans to launch its first hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (the e-ATA Hydrogen) in 2025. These vehicles will be equipped with Toyota’s state-of-the-art 85 kW fuel cell modules, providing significant power and range.

This is the key take away from conversations at the IAA Transportation and following a round table discussion with Prof. Dr. Peter Laier, Member of the Board of ZF Group.

Though the powertrain comes from SuperPanther, Steyr Automotive says the eTopas truck was “co-created” by the two companies for the European market.

The company, which was established in 2019 to develop hydrogen-powered engines, fuel cells, components and other equipment designed to help establish an hydrogen transportation eco-system, today employs around 800 people and has five R&D centres globally.

The Thai market for commercial vehicles over 2 tons gvw is estimated to have plunged by a further 22% year-on-year to 50,516 units in the second quarter of 2024, having fallen by close to 37% to 64,567 units in the same period of last year.

The ‘S.CU dc85’ is the latest model in Schmitz’s range of diesel-powered refrigeration units and is intended to replace the company’s current “top” model, the ‘S.CU 2.0’.