The UK bus and coach market in 2023 grew by 44.6% to register 4,932 units, a promising level of growth which still remains below the pre-pandemic figure of 5,874 units (2019), according to statistics published by the SMMT.

On 14 March, Schmitz Cargobull Ltd took over the King’s Suite of the Hilton Metropole, situated near the NEC in Birmingham, to launch the ‘S.KOe Cool’, an all-new fully-electric refrigerated semi-trailer which is the first of its kind to receive type approval for the European market.

From March 21 until the start of June 2024, travellers will be able to hop on the Yutong TCe12 electric coach on a Flix Bus route between London, Bristol and Newport (South Wales).

Once valued at GBP 200 million (2022), the company has blamed UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for pushing back the ban on ICE vehicles. Lunaz has ceased operations of its commercial unit ahead of a restructuring, with plans to revive its passenger car repowering business in the near future.

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.

DAF Truck dealer representative, The HTC Group has acquired Barnes DAF, which includes its Guildford and Shoreham servicing stations. All staff at these facilities have been retained. For DAF, this means that the number of UK & Ireland dealerships remains the same (146) but with one less dealer group (now 14).

The vehicle achieved a 5 star Direct Vision Standard* (DVS) rating for driver visibility, making it safe to operate in one of Europe’s busiest cities.

ADL announced that is growing its presence in the North American market, with an order for 12 battery-electric Enviro500EV double-deck buses to the public transport agency, Foothill Transit, to operate in downtown Los Angeles in 2026.

AAG is heading into the bus and coach rental market, so T&BB set up an interview with Martyn Bellis, Commercial Director of Bus & Coach at AAG, to get a better understanding of the company’s strategy to double its turnover in bus and coach from GBP500m currently to GBP1bn in the next three years!

The Driver Challenge (4th edition) will see 20 finalists battle it out in a series of practical and knowledge-based tests over a two-day (in autumn) multistage process to crown the best Commercial Vehicle (CV) driver in the UK.

They will join a fleet of 84 electric buses already delivered or on order from Wrightbus to Arriva London last year.

The 1000th vehicle was one out of 17 ‘E12’ battery electric buses which were ordered by Transdev for Heathrow Airport Terminal 5.