The funding is to come from the Department for Transport (DfT), National Highways, HS2 Ltd, Network Rail and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

The Ferndale facility has the capacity to produce up to 850 ‘Vicinity Classic’ and ‘Vicinity Lightning’ (i.e., ICE and EV) buses and 6,250 ‘VMC 1200’ battery electric trucks per year.

The planned factory will be built in the Rijnmond region of the Netherlands before 2026 and will allow the Dutch startup to scale up production of its fuel cell systems to 1,000 units annually.

The two organisations aim to offer testing and certification services in the fields of Advanced Driver Systems (ADAS), Road-Load Data Acquisition (RLDA), and vehicle dynamics to OEMs, as well as to technology and component suppliers in the country.

The company now aims to acquire certificates from FMVSS, as well as the California Air Resources Board and the Environmental Protection Agency, before the end of the year, making its ‘P7’ vehicles roadworthy and eligible for incentives.

The prototype truck is a 560-horsepower plug-in hybrid which pulls an 18-metre trailer installed with solar panels.

Shenu Agarwal, MD and CEO, Ashok Leyland, said: "We are immensely proud to have secured these orders from the Indian Army. The Defence business has been a strong pillar of growth for us, and this win further establishes our leadership in Defence mobility vehicles business."

Altogether, the bus and coach group will raise gross proceeds of approximately USD444m through the refinancing plan.

The Federal Cabinet of Germany has allocated EUR 13.8 billion for E-Mobility funding from 2024 – 2027. The funding will target the advancement of electromobility, which includes the expansion of commercial vehicle charging infrastructure.

Proposal is for mandatory fitment of AC systems in new trucks from 2025.

Testing adduced a volumetric score of 32.82 cubic metres, the highest ever achieved by a vehicle assessed for the Direct Vision Standard (the second-best score being 22 cubic metres).

This challenge has been organised by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) of Dubai and the Dubai World Congress for Self-Driving Transport, involving six autonomous bus builders testing their respective autonomous driving capabilities in the hope of winning a lucrative government tender in the future.