The company’s distribution strategy had been to appoint a single distributor per country in mainland Europe responsible for sales, aftersales, spare parts and marketing.

The Big.e delivery vehicle offers a volume of four cubic metres, a load capacity of 1000 kg and a range of between 100 and 170km depending on the battery configuration.

With series production set to begin at the end of the year, Habas representatives said that these vehicles will be produced predominantly for the CIS (Eurasian) market, namely Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Building on its hydrogen innovations since 2022, Karsan plans to launch its first hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (the e-ATA Hydrogen) in 2025. These vehicles will be equipped with Toyota’s state-of-the-art 85 kW fuel cell modules, providing significant power and range.

The company introduced its F-Line E, an all-electric heavy-duty truck using a ZF electric drive system. Set to go into series production in 2025 at its Eskişehir Plant in Northeastern Turkey, the F-LINE series integrates several high-end safety technologies.

The Turkish manufacturer, which is a subsidiary of the Koç industrial conglomerate, held a special ceremony at its plant in Sakarya to commemorate the milestones.

The German manufacturer will take advantage of Karba’s existing sales network for firefighting vehicles and equipment.

This vehicle is Switzerland's first driverless public transport vehicle, set to operate on a 2.2-kilometre route in Arbon at a speed of 30 km/h.

In our last feature on Maxion Wheels in Turkey, I made only brief mention of a very recent and significant development at the Manisa site: the construction of a new plant for forged aluminium wheels, designed not for light vehicles but for heavy trucks and other commercial vehicles. The decision to enter the CV aluminium wheel market was announced by Maxion Wheels at the last IAA Transportation in 2022; the news is important enough that it deserves an article to itself, and so I interviewed Matt Brest ahead of IAA Transportation 2024, where Maxion Wheels will show its forged aluminium wheels to the public for the first time.

Since 2022, EVM UK Ltd has sold 80 units of the Grand Toro midi buses. The distributor also sells the Visigo coach, Kendo CNG coach and the all-electric Novo Citi Volt midibus.

At this year’s Busworld Turkey, held between 29-31 May at the Istanbul Expo Center, I met with Şikar and Ünlü to discuss the past, present, and future of Maxion Wheels’ business activities in the country. While much of our conversation revolved naturally around the bus and coach industry, I learned a lot about wheel production for all segments, including light vehicles and trucks. Moreover, we talked in depth about what has made Turkey such an attractive location for industry, and why it will continue to be a good place to do business despite the ongoing currency crisis.

To the west of Bursa, in a village called Hasanağa lies the headquarters of Karsan. Though the company’s history extends back to 1966, it is only in the past decade that it has emerged as an original equipment manufacturer of note in the commercial vehicle industry. Today, it has earned a reputation as a “dark horse” among the Turkish manufacturers, a previously unknown company which has very quickly surged to prominence in the domestic and European markets.