These buses will be offered in both battery‑electric (e.City Gold) and hydrogen fuel‑cell (H2.City Gold) variants. Series production is expected in 2026 at its Vila Nova de Gaia plant in Portugal.

On display at the 2025 UITP Summit in Hamburg were two eAxles, a central drive unit for the midibus segment and a low-floor eAxle with independent suspension for heavy-duty transit bus transport segments.

The company also announced that its European operations are now headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, overseen by Daniel Fräde, Director of Sales, Marketing & After Sales Europe.

While BYD did not disclose a definitive timeline for series production or announce any major fleet contracts, the company confirmed that the B13.b will be built at its European bus manufacturing facility in Komárom, Hungary, with production expected to commence later this year.

Startling claims were made by two panellists on the mainstage of the Anaheim convention centre on the first day of the ACT Expo. The first – Peter Ludwig – announced that software-defined vehicles will make today’s vehicles look as outmoded as the steam train. The second claim came from David Liu, who said that self-driving vehicles will be the industry’s greatest invention since the diesel engine. These men have business interests in the development of software-defined and autonomous vehicles; we would expect them to say as much. A moderate response to the advent of these technologies came from Sherry Sanger – executive vice president of strategy and marketing at Penske Transportation Solutions – who sat on a different panel: she warned delegates not to rashly take up a new technology or “solution” without first having a clearly-defined problem for it to solve.

The general mood of this year’s Advanced Clean Transportation Expo – held between 28 April and 1 May in Anaheim, California – was one of healthy confusion. There were questions about the direction of the commercial vehicle industry and how a more sustainable transport system might be achieved. BAE Systems, however, is confident that the industry will continue to move towards net zero; the only questions concern “how it will be done and how long it will take”, according to Robert Lamanna, vice president and general manager of BAE Systems’ Power and Propulsion Solutions division.

The curtain-sided trailer offers a payload of up to 27.5 tons while starting at an unladen weight as low as 4.8 tonnes.

Providing 356 kilowatt hours of energy storage, these battery packs carry nickel-manganese-cobalt cells which are packaged at MAN’s facility in Nuremberg.

The ‘RE2b’, like the ‘RD1’ launched earlier this year, combines a manual ramp which folds into the floor of the bus with an electric ramp, but with greater width to make it more accessible for wheelchair passengers.

Readers may recall that, two years ago, we published a feature on TCCI Manufacturing, explaining why the longstanding Midwest supplier of compressors had decided to invest in a new facility on its home turf in Decatur, Illinois. In that article, Richard and Kara Demirjian outlined their plan to open a 260,000-square-foot “Clean Energy Innovation Hub” comprised of three facilities: a plant dedicated to the production of compressors for electric vehicles; a whole-vehicle test centre; and an academy to train the next generation of EV technicians. The innovation hub was officially unveiled by the governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker, at the end of April 2025, and so Truck & Bus Builder used the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo to get an update on TCCI’s newest investment.

This product launch aligns with Daimler Buses’ wider strategic pivot toward electrification and digitalisation.

It is less than a year since German automotive components giant Schaeffler merged with Vitesco Technologies Group to form a single “motion technology company”. Retaining the Schaeffler name, the new company is now in the process of combining the two product lines of Schaeffler and Vitesco together under a single brand. At the company’s stand at the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo – held between 28 April and 1 May in Anaheim, California – the two companies’ portfolios were nearly indistinguishable. It marked the first time that the newly-merged company presented itself as a supplier of comprehensive system solutions to the North American commercial vehicle market.