The government will provide GBP23m to incentivise uptake of hydrogen technologies as it predicts that demand for hydrogen in the heavy commercial vehicle sector could total 6TWh by 2030.

The Department of Transport promises to offer incentives to purchase zero-emission trucks, but it will also promote shifting freight from roads to rail and inland waterways.

The California Fuel Cell Partnership has requested that the Californian government provide support for its ambitious plan to put 70,000 hydrogen trucks and 200 hydrogen stations on the road by 2035.

The number of buses operating in Brazil in 2020 fell by 0.5% to 388,900 units in circulation as compared with 391,000 units in 2019, according to the National Union of the Automotive Vehicle Component Industry (Sindipeças) with the average age of buses in Brazil having lengthened to ten years and nine months, two months more than in the previous year, ie 10 years and seven months.

BYD and Alexander Dennis have announced the 18, BYD ADL Enviro200EV 11m electric buses operating in New Zealand have now completed over one million kilometres in operation, reducing CO2 emissions by more than 1,000 tonnes.

The Tokyo Zero-emission Innovation Bay aims to make the Tokyo Bay area the first zero-emission innovation hub in the world through the collaboration of many different locally-based companies and research institutions.

The Ministry of Transportation for the Government of Taiwan has announced it is to part fund two autonomous self-driving buses to operate on two regular bus services in the city of Tainin.

Volvo Trucks North America Inc of Greenboro, North Carolina, in announcing the supply of a Volvo VNR Electric to Quality Custom Distribution - the first zero-emission, battery-electric truck to be deployed in QCD’s fleet of more than 700 vehicles – has also announced production of the Class 8 electric truck slated to begin in early 2021 at the company’s New River Valley manufacturing plant in Dublin, Virginia.

The National Association of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers of São Paulo, SP, which represents the vehicle manufacturing sector in Brazil, has asked the Brazilian government to postpone the implementation date of stricter Proconve 8 (Euro VI) emission rules from diesel engines in commercial vehicles, which were adopted in 2018 and are scheduled for implementation in 2022.

Truck manufacturers and environmentalists have joined forces to push for the deployment of 11,000 charging points for electric trucks across the EU by 2025, rising to 42,000 by 2030.

The UK government has pledged GBP5bn to be spent on bus services and to encourage cycling over the next five years, which includes the introduction of at least 4,000 new zero emission buses.

Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association is lobbying for changes to EU policy to enable transition to carbon-neutral freight transport.