At the end of 2020, ZF Friedrichshafen AG says it will begin production of PowerLine, the company’s new 8-speed fully automatic transmission for medium-duty commercial vehicles in order to supply a contract with an unnamed major North American OEM for launching in early 2021.

Door specialist, Masats SA, used Busworld last month to provide customers with a private presentation of a completely new design of door system for electric coaches called Swyncro; an acronym for swinging and synchronised.

Long-established Spanish coachbuilder, Ayats, revealed its latest double deck coach at Busworld called Horizon InterCity.

Michelin Plc presented its X-Incity Energy Z at Busworld Europe last month - the first tyre in 275/70R22.5 format with a steer axle load of eight tons which, it claims, will allow future generations of electric buses to increase their capacities.

Open Tour Paris, an RATP Group subsidiary that provides hop-on hop-off sightseeing buses in Paris, has entered the field of NGVs with six open top UNVI double deck buses.

A UK consortium led by autonomous systems provider, Fusion Processing Ltd, together with British bus builder, Alexander Dennis Ltd, one of the UK’s largest passenger transportation operators,  Stagecoach Plc, and three others, are to begin public trials of five autonomous diesel buses in Scotland starting in 2020.

Indcar has seen a strong growth in sales for its minibus and midi-bus products during 2019 – largely from the urban bus segment.

Anadolu Isuzu unveiled three electric vehicles and a CNG-fuelled variant of its Interliner 13 at Busworld Europe held in Brussels last month.

Heuliez Bus, the Rorthais-based citybus building subsidiary of Iveco Bus has designed and built the new 18m Iveco E-Way electric bus at Busworld.

Busworld Europe last month was host to the premiere of a new 7900 model articulated electric bus by Volvo Bus Corporation.

Alexander Dennis Ltd is to supply six electric buses to Fullers360, a subsidiary of Weiheke Bus Company, commencing the conversion of bus services on New Zealand’s Waiheke Island to a zero emission operation. 

Electric bus builder, Ebusco NV won the Innovation award at Busworld for its new 3.0 city bus model, which features a carbon space-frame construction and composite panelling claimed to reduce weight by 33% to a minimal 8.0 tonnes.