The public demonstration of the prototype took place in the town of Plattling and was attended by Bavarian State Minister for Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy, Hubert Aiwanger, and Professor Monika Schnitzer, who is the Chairwoman of the German Council of Economic Experts, along with two hundred guests.

These charging hubs will be built at existing MAN service sites across Europe, primarily in industrial areas or next to motorways.

On its website, Spheros is promoting thermal management products for various applications, including buses, refrigerated vehicles, and e-mobility.

The O 500 RSD 6x2 coach chassis is available in two versions, model 2445 featuring a 450hp Mercedes-Benz OM 460 LA engine and the model 2438 with a 380hp engine option.

At the latest Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo, held between 20-23 May at the Las Vegas Convention Center, we spoke to several firms that offer support to operators looking to switch their fleets to electric vehicles. One of the firms we spoke with was Zenobē, a London-based “charging-as-a-service” company with considerable experience already in the passenger transport segment. There is a bewildering number of charging providers in the market, and it can be difficult to tell them apart and assess their individual merits. Now that Zenobē is expanding to the American market, we decided this would be a good time to find out what makes it different from the competition.

The company was previously occupying a shared facility with Mercedes-Benz Passenger Cars. The new premises was already home to Daimler Truck UK’s parts logistics centre with a 140,000-square-foot warehouse. 

There were many companies at the latest ACT Expo presenting variations on the theme of what one might call “Electric-Fleet-as-a-service” – that is to say, a contractual relationship where the operator has the upfront costs and hassles of switching to an electric fleet taken out of its hands by a “turnkey” service provider. One such company I spoke with was Revolv, whose CEO, Scott Davidson, feels that terms such as “X-as-a-service” and “turnkey” have been diluted through overuse. “Our product is performance,” he said.

Volvo states that this offering is tailored specifically for the Brazilian market and aligns it with its commitment to reducing carbon emissions in the transportation sector.

There are some ideas that seem so obvious upon their introduction that one wonders why somebody did not think of it earlier. A hands-free charger that automatically plugs into an electric vehicle and unplugs from it when finished surely qualifies as a not-so-obvious obvious idea. It makes perfect sense – given the potential dangers of handling high-voltage equipment, and also given the prospect of driverless vehicles – to develop chargers that do not require a human to operate them. After speaking to Erin Galiger – who is director of the North American market for Dutch tech firm Rocsys – at the latest ACT Expo, I learned that hands-free chargers have several more applications than I had initially expected.

The company has now built a pavilion named the “Actros 600 Experience World” in Wörth, where customers, clients and the general public can learn about the vehicle as well as the company’s history. Daimler is attempting to educate the public on the need for electrification as it rolls out its zero-emission product range.

Valeo says it will also be partnering with Seeing Machines to offer a “best-in-class” full system for interior sensing, available to the passenger car and commercial vehicle segments.

The e-SMaRT AU56 City product is now in series production. The first tyres to roll off the production line will be 275/70 R22.5 tyres, designed for the urban electric bus market.