Ford Motor Company of Detroit, Michigan, USA and SK Innovation Inc, of Seoul, South Korea, part of SK Energy, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to create a joint venture company – to be called BlueOvalSK – to manufacture battery cells in the USA.

Mitsubishi Fuso has launched a new model version of its heavy-duty Super Great truck, equipped for the first time with Emergency Stop Assist, which detects anomalies in steering wheel activity.

The market for commercial vehicles over 2 tons gvw in East Asia’s seven main markets (excluding China) expanded by 4.2% to 366,367 units in the first quarter of 2021 after declining by almost 19% to 351,556 units in the same period of last year.

The Japanese market for commercial vehicles over 2 tons gvw expanded by just 1.4% year-on-year to 118,511 units in the first quarter of 2021 from 116,830 units in the same period of last year.

The Philippine market for commercial vehicles over 2 tons gvw expanded by over 6% to an estimated 24,901 units in the first quarter of 2021 from 23,374 units in the same period of last year.

The Malaysian commercial vehicle market over 2 tons gvw rebounded strongly in the first quarter of 2021, by over 56% to 15,165 units after declining by 22% to 9,697 units in the same period of last year.

The Thai commercial vehicle market over 2 tons gvw declined by 2.9% to an estimated 103,491 units in the first quarter of 2021 from weak year-earlier first quarter sales of 106,561 units.

Vietnam’s market for commercial vehicles over 2 tons gvw expanded by over 33% to 15,211 units in the first quarter of 2021 after declining by over 25% to 11,390 units in the same period of last year.

The Indonesian market for commercial vehicles over 2 tons gvw declined by just over 4% to 29,867 units in the first quarter of 2021 after plunging by 25% to 31,209 units in the same period of last year.

South Korea’s commercial vehicle market over 2 tons gvw expanded by almost 13% to 59,221 units in the first quarter of 2021 from weak year-earlier sales of 52,495 units.

Bridgestone Americas has made a minority investment in Kodiak Robotics. The partnership will allow Bridgestone to integrate its smart-sensing tyre technologies and fleet solutions into Kodiak's level 4 autonomous trucks.

BYD and Alexander Dennis have announced the 18, BYD ADL Enviro200EV 11m electric buses operating in New Zealand have now completed over one million kilometres in operation, reducing CO2 emissions by more than 1,000 tonnes.