Production of Van Hool semi-trailers – which include tankers, container chassis, and flatbeds as well as conventional box and curtainsided trailers – resumed on 29 April following the intervention of GRW, together with VDL Groep, to take over the company.

The new sustainable-material demonstration truck tyre used 63% sustainable material with 15 sustainable ingredients across 20 tyre components. Furthermore, it was manufactured with four different carbon blacks sourced from plant-based oils rather than crude oil.

Located at Vrachtwagenparking Ketenis, the hub has ten combined charging system (CCS) chargers which can be plugged into twenty trucks at once, delivering 400 kW of power to each vehicle.

The funding package, dubbed ‘Hy2Move’, is the fourth “Important Project of Common European Interest” (IPCEI) related to hydrogen which the European Commission has approved over the past two years.

Irizar announced that Belgian transport operator De Lijn has ordered up to 100 ie tram electric buses, which will operate in Flanders.

The amended legislation will further reduce CO2 emissions from road transport and introduce new targets for 2030, 2035 and 2040. 

On 10 April, members of the press descended on the Flemish city of Roeselare to visit a new bus factory operated by Dutch company VDL Bus & Coach. Ostensibly, they were there to report on the factory itself and the ribbon cutting ceremony which marked its official opening, but I suspect that the local media were hunting for information on an entirely different topic. Indeed, the CV trade journalists hardly spoke of anything else: the bankruptcy of commercial vehicle manufacturer Van Hool and the prospect of a rescue by VDL.

According to the EU, the dates of application depend on vehicle type: “30 months for new types of cars and vans, and 42 months for new cars and vans. 48 months for new types of buses, trucks and trailers, and 60 months for new buses, lorries and trailers. 30 months for new systems, components or separate technical units to be fitted in cars and vans, and 48 months for those to be fitted in buses, lorries and trailers.”

No further details have been announced, except that the two partners will initially keep between 650 and 950 Van Hool workers in employment.

The manufacturer has said that "an inheritance dispute" among shareholders and the Van Hool family "has complicated the planned actions"; the implementation of its recovery plan "in a business continuity situation is no longer viable”.

The total number of city buses with alternative drivelines in European Union 27 countries plus the UK, Norway (NO), Iceland (ICE) and Switzerland (EU 27+4) totalled 13,466 units  comprising 6,354 electric buses (excludes trolley buses), 4,022 hybrid-electric buses, 2,883 CNG buses and 207, hydrogen (fuel cell) buses.

Bus and coach deliveries in Europe* reversed a three year downward trend in 2023 increasing by almost 21% (*Countries EU27+UK+ICE+NO+CH).