Importer and dealer, SAIC Maxus has announced the launch and availability of its latest battery-powered Maxus panel van, the Maxus eDeliver9, available at gross weights of 3.5t and 4.05t.

Leyland Trucks Ltd, the producer of DAF trucks for right hand drive markets, last month celebrated production of its 200,000th LF chassis.

Gainsborough-based Eminox Ltd is to retrofit emissions control solutions to 205 buses operated by First Group (Scotland) enabling compliance ahead of the introduction of Low Emissions Zones in Edinburgh, Dundee, and Aberdeen between February 2022 and May 2022, and Phase 2 in Glasgow in 2023.

Croydon-based Thompsons Group, renowned for its steel tipper truck bodies is now carving out a reputation for its aluminium bodies with customers increasingly wanting aluminium bodies to accommodate a much wider range of operating requirements.

New distribution electric truck start up, Volta Trucks has announced it has entered a long term strategic partnership with Petit Forestier SAS - the European leader in refrigeration rentals - to develop and build a full-electric refrigerated delivery truck.

Electric van and bus manufacturing start up, Arrival Ltd, is establishing its North American headquarters in Charlotte, adding around 150 new employees and plans to invest USD3m establishing the company’s new offices on South Tryon Street, South End, North Carolina.

Following the announcement by ACEA-PIK on delivering fossil-free trucks by 2040, Alastair Hayfield, senior research director for commercial vehicles at market research firm, Interact Analysis made the following comments: “Currently, the medium- and heavy-duty battery electric truck market is very small: in Europe it amounted to 124 units in 2019 (44 medium-duty trucks and 80 heavy-duty trucks).

High-pressure composite and aluminium cylinder manufacturer, Luxfer Gas Cylinders in Q4 of 2020 delivered bespoke hydrogen fuel systems for 15, Wrightbus double deck buses now in operation in Aberdeen and 50 Hyundai Xcient Fuel-Cell 19t trucks.

Alexander Dennis Ltd in December announced delivery of the first of an initial order for 100, Enviro400ER plug-in hybrid double deck buses to the Republic of Ireland’s National Transport Authority; the first vehicles are expected to enter service in early 2021, 74 with Dublin Bus in the Irish capital, and a further 26 with Bus Éireann in Galway.

The trailer manufacturing business of the Cartwright Group is unlikely to reappear from administration with debts exceeding GBP50m.

A short briefing last month by Alastair Hayfield, senior research director for commercial vehicles at market research firm, Interact Analysis UK, provided an insightful analysis about future demand for the internal combustion engine and the rate of its replacement with zero emission technology in different global regional markets.

In response to growing demand in the UK for zero emission buses, Alexander Dennis Ltd and BYD UK, are extending their business partnership with the announcement they plan to assemble electric bus chassis in the UK starting in the second half of 2021.