The facility will support research and development into both alternative fuel engines and fuel-cell electric drivelines, as part of Ricardo's ambition to establish a global centre of excellence for hydrogen technologies and for electrified transport engineering.

‘ROADVIEW’, which stands for ‘Robust Automated Driving in Extreme Weather’ brings together 16 partners from 7 countries to come up with solutions to the challenges posed by harsh weather and poor visibility to autonomous vehicles.

The project, called NEFTON, is assessing whether fast megawatt charging can help battery-electric trucks to match the typical profile of a conventional truck used for long haul transportation, and measuring the impact that megawatt chargers would have on the national grid.

The 30,000-square-foot Tottenham site will serve as the base for the company’s ‘Truck-as-a-Service’ operations in the London metropolitan area.

BorgWarner is using its in-house expertise to develop the hydrogen internal combustion engine for installation in on-highway commercial vehicles. Truck & Bus Builder follows up the ‘H2ICE’ demonstrator model, debuted at Cenex in the UK with an interview with Luc Beduneau, Engineering Director of the BorgWarner Centre for Innovation & Engineering Excellence (CIEE) in Blois, France, to gain more insight into the project and the hydrogen internal combustion engine.

The Caetano UNVI C21 electric bus is a new low-floor 12-metre urban electric bus featuring an electric chassis (e.chassis) from Caetano capable of fitting a battery capacity of up to 420 kWh and UNVI’s steel structured single deck body meeting EC rollover regulation (R66).

The German automotive systems supplier reports that “several thousand” trailers in DSA’s fleet will be equipped with TX-Trailerpulse, connecting them to its Transics-branded 'Fleet Management Solutions'.

Following its deal with Volvo Buses, Flix hopes to make the procurement of coaches easier and cheaper for its partners, who operate in over 30 European countries as well as in North and South America.

The theme for next year’s conference is ‘Technology Convergence 2023 – Setting the wheels in motion – Reimagining the future of heavy vehicles, roads and freight,’ amalgamating productivity, safety and environmental sustainability in the heavy-duty industry.

The two companies are working on a vehicle concept, called ‘Sixtron’, which will bring together Rampini’s line of ‘E60’ battery-electric buses and Perrone’s ‘TONY’ autonomous driving retrofit kit.

At the AutoCar Expo, held in Lyon between 12 and 15 October, Safra launched its ‘H2-Pack’ fuel cell retrofit kit for coaches and released details of the first orders for its new ‘Hycity’ fuel-cell electric bus range. 

The two companies have pledged to continue developing autonomous driving technology in mining trucks, focusing on operations at Rio Tinto’s iron ore mine, called Channar mine, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.