Called Ruta Elétrica Andina the project proposes construction of battery charging stations along the Andean highway at intervals of every 200 km – initially the project is to run from Cartagena in northern Colombia to Ipiales, on the border with Ecuador.

A top-of-the-line Actros extra-heavy truck cabin in zirconium blue was used to celebrate this historic milestone with all employees at the factory in Minas Gerais.

Volvo Financial Services (VFS) América do Sul based in Curitiba, Paraná, is now 30 years old on the Brazilian market with managed assets in 2023 totalling BRA 22 billion (USD4.4bn).

The eO500U chassis has been developed entirely by Mercedes-Benz do Brasil in Campinas, Brazil, where Daimler Truck's World Competence Center is located for the development of bus chassis.

Since its market introduction in 2003, 89,515 units have been registered, of which 85,461 are light trucks and 4,054 are medium trucks, which means an average of 4,475 units per year.

The vehicles were tailor-made for the Middle East market and eighty units of the coach bodies on the Volksbus 17.240 OT chassis were equipped with a removable roof.

Launched in 2003, the company says the VM represents a watershed in Volvo's Brazilian operation. It was the brand's first semi-heavy vehicle in the country, being designed and produced exclusively in the Curitiba (PR) industrial complex, one of Volvo's main factories around the world.

The new distributor will be responsible for sales of all temperature control refrigeration unit models.

According to data from Bogotá-based Andemos (National Association for Sustainable Mobility) sales in year to September 30, 2023, fell by 35.3% to 19,444 heavy commercial vehicles compared with 30,060 units sold in the same period of 2022.

Iveco maintained its sales leadership with 4,199 units sold in the period from January to September this year, resulting in growth of 16.0% compared with 3,620 vehicles in the same period of the previous year.

Ecuador completed the first nine months of this year with registrations of 8,219 heavy commercial vehicles, a decrease of 4.2% compared with 8,581 vehicles sold in the same period of 2022.

With registrations of 12,881 heavy commercial vehicles during the first nine months of this year, the Peruvian market declined by 6.3% compared with 13,750 units invoiced in the same period of 2022.