T&BB spoke to Vanessa Kelly, Head of Corporate Relations of HVS at Cenex 2024 to learn that HVS is entering another funding (Series B) round in October this year as the engineers continue to forge ahead with its attribute prototype (AP) build.

The Series B investments bring the Canadian startup’s total invested capital to USD280m.

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.

Farizon plans to use the funds to strengthen its R&D and new product development operations, as it looks to consolidate its position as China’s leading manufacturer of new energy commercial vehicles.

The funding is to be used to support deployment of 350 fully air-conditioned, 9-metre electric buses across eight cities in Uttar Pradesh.

At the latest Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo, held between 20-23 May at the Las Vegas Convention Center, we spoke to several firms that offer support to operators looking to switch their fleets to electric vehicles. One of the firms we spoke with was Zenobē, a London-based “charging-as-a-service” company with considerable experience already in the passenger transport segment. There is a bewildering number of charging providers in the market, and it can be difficult to tell them apart and assess their individual merits. Now that Zenobē is expanding to the American market, we decided this would be a good time to find out what makes it different from the competition.

There were many companies at the latest ACT Expo presenting variations on the theme of what one might call “Electric-Fleet-as-a-service” – that is to say, a contractual relationship where the operator has the upfront costs and hassles of switching to an electric fleet taken out of its hands by a “turnkey” service provider. One such company I spoke with was Revolv, whose CEO, Scott Davidson, feels that terms such as “X-as-a-service” and “turnkey” have been diluted through overuse. “Our product is performance,” he said.

Volvo on Demand is the company’s own interpretation of the ‘Truck-as-a-Service’ concept, providing the customer with everything he needs to operate an electric vehicle.