CATL unveiled a new long-life commercial vehicle battery pack with a claimed service life of up to 15 years or 1.5 million kilometres. CATL has been cagey about disclosing details, such as the battery chemistry, order numbers and when the product will go into series production but the new product will be used in Yutong’s next-generation electric Commercial Vehicles.

The new factory, construction of which is expected to be completed by the end of the year for start of operations in the first quarter of 2025, is to supply driveline components to the truck and bus chassis produced by Mercedes-Benz do Brasil.

The HVS tractor unit was powered by green hydrogen with the aim of demonstrating its real-world capabilities with each testing phase concentrating on specific aspects of the vehicle design and performance (electric and thermal) in various weather conditions.

Paccar Connect provides operators with valuable fleet data relating to vehicle performance, fuel consumption, driver behaviour and GPS/logistical data helping operators run fleets more efficiently.

The TransMilenio system in the city of Bogotá, Colombia, claims to have an electric bus fleet of over 1,600 vehicles, the second largest in South America behind Santiago in Chile.

The Turkish commmercial vehicle manufacturer announced that, between 2020 and 2023, its turnover grew by 252% to USD387.5m in 2023.

T&BB decided to delve into the reasons for this sales success story by interviewing the top management of Stuart Beeton, Head of Sales & Marketing and Peter Murphy, Managing Director of Isuzu Truck UK.

Higer imports buses to South America via a JV in Brazil.

Earlier this month at the Commercial Vehicle Show at the NEC in Birmingham, T&BB spoke to Greg Ethridge, the Chief Financial Officer of American EV manufacturer, Canoo Inc who confirmed that the company had indeed purchased manufacturing assets (robotics and machinery equipment) from now defunct, Arrival Ltd. The manufacturing assets are set to be shipped by sea to the Canoo manufacturing facility in Oklahoma City, in the U.S.A.

February saw PepsiCo take delivery of its first electric heavy-duty truck in Brazil; a semi-heavy rigid (15t ≤ gvw up to 40 tons) P25 6x2 Scania truck, produced in Sweden, which is to be used for internal logistics goods distribution operations between PepsiCo’s four factories* in the state of São Paulo.

The order consists of 300 Crossway low-entry buses, 50 Evadys coaches and 60 Daily minibuses, set to be delivered between Q4 2024 and Q1 2025. These vehicles will operate in the port city of Abidjan.

According to the latest agreement, the companies plan to co-develop electric heavy-duty trucks (both battery-electric and fuel-cell electric) for the European market.