Readers of Truck & Bus Builder will be accustomed by now to news stories reporting the demise of yet another electric vehicle startup. Particularly in Britain and in the USA, several new companies in receipt of millions of dollars of investors’ money – either through venture capital funding rounds or the stock market – have faltered in the past year, reducing their business activities to a fraction of their original scope or ceasing to trade altogether. Yet, in late 2024, while all of this was going on, a small British firm successfully raised a sum of GBP17.3m from investors who could justifiably have refused to cough up a single penny towards yet another electric vehicle proposition. Bucking the trend, Sunswap Ltd is showing that a new entrant can bring out a product that is economically as well as environmentally sustainable.

An ‘eTGX’ tractor unit will be put on the road, pulling DPD semi-trailers on a route from the firm’s delivery hub in Hinckley in central England.

This marks a significant growth of 1,791% in its electric vehicle service portfolio over the past 12 months.

The new-gen Strata provides improved accessibility and greater interior room for up to thirty passengers in its largest configuration.

The government announced twelve separate awards to local authorities totalling GBP37.8m in value and funding the introduction of up to 319 new buses in the next two years.

SDC supplied 200 of its ‘Tri-Maxi Curtainsiders’, 4.6-metre tri-axle trailers with bolt-on components produced at the company’s Toomebridge and Mansfield sites.

The University of Manchester’s mechanical and aerospace engineering department is looking into refrigerated vehicles as the effect of the fridge unit on the overall vehicle aerodynamics is understudied.

According to SMMT’s own post-show review, “more than 400 senior representatives from industry, government, and the infrastructure, energy, fleets, insurance and logistics sectors” were in attendance to discuss “the transition to zero emission mobility”. Certainly, the conference drew a large and diverse crowd of people, but while the auditorium spilled over with attendees, the speeches and panel discussions were light on substance. Lilian Greenwood, Member of Parliament and undersecretary to the transport secretary, did not explain how the Starmer government would provide certainty to the industry in its transition to electric, other than a bland assertion that the 2030 and 2035 bans on combustion-engine cars and vans, which have already been moved twice, were “iron-clad” targets that the current government would stick to.

The Enviro100EV body was constructed in Zhuhai, China, and the chassis assembled at Alexander Dennis's facility in Scarborough, England.

These hubs will offer electric charging, hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), hydrogen, and bio-compressed natural gas (bio-CNG) to support the rollout of zero-emission commercial vehicles.

According to Kleanbus, conversions cost just 20% of the cost of a new battery-electric bus and offer, when completed, significantly lower emissions to the diesel powered vehicle it replaces.

The Northern Irish bus manufacturer announced its re-entry into the British coach market with the launch of a new diesel model and the promised launch of a fuel cell electric variant in the near future.