Over the last year, several large Brazilian transport companies like Ambev, Braspress, Pepsi and Ouro Verde, have started to replace some of their urban delivery fleet vehicles with electric ones, especially for delivery services in urban areas.

‘Vehicle markets worldwide are seeing governments introduce legislation to fast track the shift in powertrain type from vehicles with traditional combustion engine technology to vehicles powered using zero emission electric drive systems,’ writes Voith Turbo of Heidenheim in a recent press release.

In the first quarter of this year alone, the city of Bogotá in Colombia has put into circulation around 558 new electric buses, a volume 500% higher than in the same period in 2021 and almost 450% higher than in the whole of last year.

The paper, published in Nature Electronics, argues that hydrogen technology is unlikely to play a major role in decarbonising heavy-duty vehicles, as the development of battery-electric technologies could soon render fuel-cell electric vehicles "superfluous".

Sílvio Munhoz, Sales Solutions director of Scania do Brasil sets the scene for 2022

Mercedes-Benz Brazil predicts that bus and coach sales in Brazil in 2022 could reach 18,500 units, an increase of 35% above the 13,000 vehicles estimated for 2021.

Brazilian bus and coach production grew 12.1% in the first seven months of 2021, with 11,857 chassis produced, according to Anfavea.

According to Luiz Carlos Moraes, the president of the National Association of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (ANFAVEA) of Sao Paulo, is expecting the Brazilian truck sector to continue to be positive and to perform better than any other vehicle categories in Brazil, even despite the pandemic and the economic crisis.

Trailer and truck body builders in Brazil are warning the price increases in raw materials will impact economic recovery and their businesses this year. In particular, the impact the increase in the price of steel – still the main building commodity – is likely to have a negative impact on sales and the ability of the manufacturers to supply customers in 2021.

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.

At the beginning of the year, Volvo Latin America Ltda announced it was hiring of 400 temporary employees for the plant in Curitiba (PR).

The National Association of Bus Manufacturers is forecasting the worst year this century for the Brazilian bus industry, with performance comparable only to 1999, when only 12,098 bodies were produced.