Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) for the government of India, has announced it plans to implement a ‘Star Rating’ system for tyres, which will be based also on standards set by the European Union; ‘Tyre Labelling’ standards set under the regulation UNECE R 117.

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH) had issued draft notification amendments to mandate installation of fire detection and alarm systems in all new school and intercity buses throughout the vehicle, which now includes the passenger compartment in addition to the engine compartment.

Apollo Tyres Ltd of Gurugram, has received approval with ISO/IEC 17025 for wet grip and coast-by (run by) noise tyre tests on its track situated in Oragadam, Chennai, which is supported by the Global Automotive Research Centre (GARC) of Chennai to introduce tyre labelling and certification tests in India.

Bus builder, Blue Bird Corporation of Fort Valley, Georgia has voiced its support for the newly introduced 'Clean Commute for Kids Act of 2021.' The Act provides purchase assistance for electric school buses and is authorised to provide funding of up to USD2.5bn a year for districts, allowing affordable purchase of electric school buses. 

BYD and Marcopolo in March announced delivery of the first articulated electric bus to be made in Brazil to the city of São José dos Campos. The vehicle is to be used for city public transport as part of the Linha Verde project.

The Brazilian bus and chassis market fell by 9.0% in the first quarter of 2021 to register 3,331 bus chassis, a trend that has been occurring since the second quarter of 2020.

FPT Industrial of Turin, Italy, the powertrain division of CNH Industrial, has launched three new versions of its Cursor 9, Cursor 11, and Cursor 13 engines in advance of the GBVI emission standards requirements in China effective from July 1.

ROCSYS, Grivix GmbH and VDL Enabling Transport Solutions are working together to develop a robotic charging solution for Heavy Duty Charging under the grant-funded Eurostars project, Autocharge.

Alexander Dennis Ltd of Larbert, part of NFI Group, has secured a further 172 electric bus orders through the Scottish Government’s award of GBP40.5m in funding to bus operators through a second round of the Scottish Ultra-Low Emission Bus Scheme.

The Board of Directors of the Ministry of Education of the Brazilian Government, on January 6, 2021, has indefinitely stopped the competitive tender for the supply of 6,900 buses under the Caminho da Escola Program (Federal School Bus Programme).

First announcing this development at Busworld 2019 in Brussels last year, Solaris Bus & Coach SA says it is now fitting the Collision Mitigation System intelligent braking support system in the Solaris urban bus range.

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.