October saw two BYD electric city buses start research trials in Salvador, Bahia State, Brazil’s oldest city, on a 13.2km route between Pirajá Metro Station and São João Island.

The 11t gvw Delivery 11,180 4x4 truck, which VWCO claims is the first light truck with all-wheel drive in Brazil, went into production in October with sales starting a month later in November.

BYD Co Ltd has won an order to supply Bogotá with 1,002 9m and 12m electric feeder buses from Bogotá City Public Transport Authority, which sets a record for a single overseas order.

The new coach, which is designed for charter and tourism applications comprises the Mercedes-Benz O 500 RS 1836 rear engine chassis and Comil’s Campione Invictus body.

Three models of the new generation Aumark S range were launched, the Citytruck 6.5-15, Citytruck model 9-16 and Citytruck 11-16.

Torsus convert VW Crafter and MAN truck chassis and install tracked seating to provide operators with full flexibility on seat configurations.

The Philippine market for medium and heavy-duty commercial vehicles over 5 tons gvw is estimated to have declined by over 26% to 2,889 units in the first quarter of 2020 from already weak year-earlier sales of 3,930 units. Sales in March plunged as exports, investment and domestic business activity dropped sharply due to the COVID19 coronavirus pandemic.

This year, coach building specialist, MCI, is offering 100% battery electric versions of its best-selling coach models for tour, charter and employee shuttle application, the 35ft, J3500 model and the 45ft, J4500 coach model, according to JP Pelletier, VP Engineering MCI NFI Group - Coach Business, announcing this during a presentation at the Busworld Academy North America held during the ABA Marketplace 2020 in Omaha earlier this year.

“At Navistar we are power agnostic, we offer diesel (Cummins), gasoline (PSI), gas (PSI) and in the near future, electric powered vehicles,” stated Gary Horvat,  Navistar, Vice President eMobility.

“The buzz word right now is zero emissions, and whenever someone talks about zero missions, we go straight to battery electric, but that is not the only option,” were some of the opening remarks made by Jeff Madura – Van Hool, Director of Public Sector Sales, North America in a presentation on Van Hool’s role on new technologies.

The truck market in Brazil has continued its recovery and to expand strongly with sales exceeding 100,000 units in 2019, an increase of 33.3% compared with 75,994 units in 2018.

Presenting a year-end overview of its performance in the markets of the UK and Ireland, James Charnock, commercial vehicle and services director at Renault Trucks UK, said while political uncertainty surrounding Brexit had driven some pre-buy activity this year, the result had been overall market growth in the medium and heavy-duty (MHD) truck sector with 47,000 registrations at the end of November – up 14% on 2018, exceeding expectations.