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.

Andreas Tostmann CEO of MAN Truck & Bus officially opened the MAN eMobility Centre in Munich on June 9, 2021, for staff training in electric truck assembly and manufacture and for ‘eTruck’ manufacturing production and process development, with start of series production of electric trucks said to be sometime soon.

While the European market is growing at a phenomenal rate – the European electric bus market is forecast to grow from 2,114 units registered in 2020 to more than 12,760 units in 2030 - the market in Asia really accounts for the lion share of the electric city bus market, stated Rueben Scriven - Senior Analyst at Interact Analysis, during an on-line presentation at the Sustainability Bus conference last month.

The price of steel charged by producers in Brazil in the last 12 months has increased by almost 100%, according to Norberto Fabris, president of ANFIR - National Association of Manufacturers of Road Implements.