California Governor Gavin Newsom signed two bills to strengthen emission standards for trucks, semis and other high-pollution vehicles. The Governor also issued an executive order directing the leveraging of the state’s $700-billion CalPERS, CalSTRS and UC Retirement Program portfolio to drive investment toward carbon-neutral technologies. The order also directs the... Read more →

Loop Energy, a provider of fuel cell electric range extenders for medium- and heavy-duty transport applications, announced a cash investment from Cummins Inc. Cummins has made several recent investments in the electrification powertrain side of their business, including acquisitions of Hydrogenics (earlier post) and Efficient Drivetrains (earlier post). Hydrogen fuel... Read more →

Daimler Trucks & Buses and battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL) have entered a global battery cell modules supply agreement for electric trucks. CATL will supply lithium-ion battery cell modules for a wide range of Daimler Trucks & Buses’ global electric truck portfolio to be introduced in markets... Read more →

Navigant Research forecasts that e-buses will make up nearly one-third of all buses on the road worldwide by 2030. The global medium- and heavy-duty bus market has been dominated by internal combustion engine vehicles. However, Navigant says, the adoption of electric buses (e-buses) will continue to rise as battery prices... Read more →

Lightning Systems, a developer of zero-emission powertrains for commercial fleets, has received an Executive Order from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) for the Lightning Electric Transit Bus Repower, with HVIP approval expected within the next several weeks. The Transit Bus Repower is a full-featured powertrain conversion of an existing... Read more →

According to the American Public Transit Association (APTA), alternative fuels and advanced hybrid drivetrains powered more than half of all transit buses in 2017 and 2018. In the ten-year period from 2008 to 2018, the share of conventional diesel buses dropped from 70% to 42%. Natural gas and diesel hybrid... Read more →

UK-based electrification company Equipmake has begun the final testing phase of an all-new electric bus powertrain. UK-based performance and durability development is set to finish at the end of the year. In-service trials of the vehicle will then begin in Q1 2020 by Brazilian commercial vehicle manufacturer, Agrale, which will... Read more →

Silicon Valley-based Plus.ai has formed a joint venture with FAW Jiefang, China’s oldest and largest truck manufacturer, to develop autonomous trucks for China. Plus.ai specializes in developing full-stack self-driving technology to enable large scale autonomous commercial fleets. The exclusive partnership is also launching its first product, the first production-class L2... Read more →

Starting in 2021, public transport company Hamburger Hochbahn AG will be field-testing the new Mercedes-Benz eCitaro articulated bus with a fuel cell as a range extender. Mercedes-Benz will deliver two correspondingly equipped buses during the course of 2021. As announced a year ago at its world premiere, the all-electric and... Read more →

Solaris has signed a contract for the supply of 50 zero-emission and low emission buses to bus operator Vy Buss AB: eight electric buses and 42 natural-gas-fueled units. Ultimately, the bulk of the ordered buses (48 vehicles) will be in operation in Gävle. This Swedish town located at the Gulf... Read more →

CNH Industrial N.V., the owner of IVECO and FPT Industrial, intends to enter into a strategic and exclusive heavy-duty truck partnership with Nikola Corporation to accelerate industry transformation towards emission neutrality of Class 8 heavy-duty trucks in North America and Europe through the adoption of fuel-cell technology. Nikola’s zero-emission Heavy... Read more →

FlixBus and Freudenberg Sealing Technologies are collaborating on a future-oriented project for sustainable, CO2-free mobility. Together, Europe’s largest operator of long-distance bus travel, the FlixBus brand, and global technology specialist Freudenberg Sealing Technologies are working to put fuel cell-powered coaches on the road. The two companies will further extend their... Read more →

technotrans SE will be presenting their e-battery battery coolers at this year’s Busworld Europe in Brussels from 18 to 23 October. In addition, the provider will also show cooling solutions for charging stations. The temperature of the lithium-ion batteries installed in e-vehicles is crucial for their performance and service life.... Read more →

From the end of August the EBS public transport company will be operating 93 Mercedes-Benz Citaro NGT hybrid low-floor urban buses in the Rotterdam - The Hague metropolitan area. The fleet is made up of 83 Citaro NGT hybrid solo buses and ten Citaro G NGT hybrid articulated buses. Their... Read more →

The California Air Resources Board (ARB) will host a public workshop to discuss regulatory concepts to reduce NOx emissions from new on-road heavy-duty vehicles greater than 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight rating. A key measure in ARB’s Mobile Source Strategy is the establishment of low oxides of nitrogen (NOx) engine... Read more →

by Michael Sivak. In this analysis, I examined recent changes in the contribution of transportation to total greenhouse gas emissions in the United States relative to the other sources of emissions (industry, commercial, residential, and agriculture). Also of interest were the changes in the relative contributions of various transportation modes,... Read more →

More than 100 electric school buses, powered by a Cummins fully electric drivetrain, have been ordered to date from Blue Bird Corporation, a school bus manufacturer highly focused on alternative fuel technologies. Blue Bird electric buses are already operating in California, North Dakota and Washington. Additional buses on order will... Read more →

UPS’ venture capital arm, UPS Ventures, has made a minority investment in autonomous driving company TuSimple (earlier post). Together, both companies are testing self-driving tractor trailers on a route in Arizona to determine whether the vehicles can improve service and efficiency in the UPS network. This is an extension of... Read more →

Solaris has claimed the lead spot in Europe in terms of contracts for electric buses in 2019. In the first months of 2019, Solaris secured three large orders for the supply of electric buses to Berlin (BVG); Milan (ATM); and Warsaw (MZA). A total of up to 470 vehicles will... Read more →

Daimler Trucks North America LLC (DTNA) has built the first two Class 8 battery electric Freightliner eCascadias for customers at its research and development center in Portland. The trucks are part of Freightliner’s Electric Innovation Fleet and built to test the integration of battery electric trucks in to large-scale fleet... Read more →

Transport operator Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacji Miejskiej (PKM) in Katowice, Poland has ordered five Solaris Urbino 12 electric electrobuses. This contract marks the 100th one for the supply of battery vehicles from Solaris. At the beginning of the year, Solaris supplied five articulated Urbino 18 electric to the PKM operator. Earlier, two... Read more →

The transport operator ACTV SPA Venezia has ordered 30 Solaris Urbino 12 electric buses and the infrastructure for battery charging. The total value of the contract acquired exceeds €20 million. The contract follows the recent order from ATM Milan for up to 250 electric buses. (Earlier post.) The electric buses... Read more →

The US Department of Energy has awarded Nikola Motor Company a $1.7-million grant to advance its research into fuel cell membrane electrode assembly (MEA). The joint grant was funded by the US Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Transportation Office under the recently announced FY19 Commercial Trucks... Read more →

Daimler Buses has equipped its Mannheim bus plant with a central charging station for the fully-electric eCitaro. It can also be used to provide the newly released eCitaro with electricity via a pantograph. The special feature of this charging station is that the charging devices are suspended at a height... Read more →

Toyota Motor Corporation has launched its updated Sora Fuel Cell Electrified Vehicle bus (FCEV bus) with improvements to its preventive safety performance. Specifically, Toyota has improved the Sora’s preventive safety performance through the use of ITS functions (ITS: Intelligent Transport Systems). Additionally, the Sora’s transportation capacity, speed, and punctuality have... Read more →

Electric bus manufacturer Proterra launched Proterra Powered vehicle electrification solutions, leveraging Proterra’s electric vehicle technology and expertise to help commercial vehicle manufacturers electrify their heavy-duty vehicles. Proterra has developed high-performance battery systems, electric drivetrain technology, and standardized, heavy-duty charging systems for commercial vehicle applications. Proterra technology and equipment helped the... Read more →

New Flyer of America Inc. announced a new contract from the Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA) for four forty-foot, battery-electric Xcelsior CHARGE heavy-duty transit buses. New Flyer Infrastructure Solutions was also selected to provide and commission four Siemens direct current depot chargers that conform to Society of Automotive Engineer (SAE)... Read more →

Dana Incorporated will provide its Spicer Electrified e-Propulsion solution with integrated TM4 SUMO HP motor-inverter system to power Class 8 tractor-trailer units that will move freight year-round between Edmonton and Calgary in Alberta, Canada. The trucks are part of a three-year, $11.2-million (C$15-million) Alberta Zero-Emissions Truck Electrification Collaboration (AZETEC) project,... Read more →

The US Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced $84.9 million in grant selections through the Low- or No-Emission (Low-No) Grant program, which funds the deployment of transit buses and infrastructure that use advanced propulsion technologies. Thirty-eight projects in 38 states will each receive funding through the program.... Read more →

Ballard Power Systems announced a purchase order from Solaris Bus & Coach S.A. for 12 FCmove-HD fuel cell modules to power 12 buses to be deployed with SASA Bolzano, the public transport operator in Bolzano, Italy under the Joint Initiative For Hydrogen Vehicles Across Europe (JIVE) funding program. (Earlier post.)... Read more →

The US Department of Energy announced $50 million for new and innovative research of technologies for trucks, off-road vehicles, and the fuels that power them. Funded through the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), these selections highlight the DOE’s priorities in gaseous fuels research, including natural gas,... Read more →

New Flyer Industries Canada, a subsidiary of NFI Group Inc. (NFI), one of the world’s largest independent global bus manufacturers, announced the Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC) and Brampton Transit have jointly secured $11.15 million in federal funding from Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) to support the adoption... Read more →

Switzerland’s first system for the commercial production of hydrogen is planned at the Gösgen hydropower plant. The 2 MW system is to be constructed by Hydrospider, which is owned in equal shares by Alpiq and H2 Energy. The system is to be constructed on the left bank of the Aare... Read more →

Ballard Power Systems announced a purchase order from Wrightbus, a leading bus OEM and Ballard partner headquartered in Northern Ireland, for 15 FCveloCity-HD 85-kilowatt fuel cell modules to power buses for deployment in Aberdeen, Scotland under the Joint Initiative For Hydrogen Vehicles Across Europe (“JIVE”) funding program. The Wrightbus double-decker... Read more →

Stäubli Electrical Connectors, a leading manufacturer of electrical connector solutions, has signed an agreement with SSA Marine to provide automatic charging stations for 33 terminal tractors at the Port of Long Beach. This project will create the largest automated electric vehicle charging program of any port in the United States.... Read more →

City transport operator Miejskie Zakłady Autobusowe w Warszawie (MZA) has ordered 130 Solaris electric buses for nearly PLN 400 million (US$106 million). The articulated Urbino 18 electrics will be delivered to the capital of Poland in 2020. The order for 130 articulated electric buses is the biggest tender of its... Read more →

Researchers at Hunan University have investigated the effects of compression ratio (CR), EGR and spark timing strategies on performance, combustion and NOx emissions of a heavy-duty natural gas engine fueled with 99% methane content. A paper on their work is published in the journal Fuel. … natural gas … is... Read more →

Volvo Group and Samsung SDI have entered into a strategic alliance to develop battery packs for Volvo Group’s electric trucks. Working together with Samsung SDI, Volvo Group aims to accelerate the speed of development and strengthen the long-term capabilities and assets within electromobility, to the benefit of customers in different... Read more →

Orange EV and California-based Super Store Industries (SSI) announced the deployment of Orange EV T-Series pure electric terminal trucks to multiple SSI facilities, supporting both grocery distribution and dairy and beverage manufacturing. SSI’s first Orange EV yard truck was immediately deployed into heavy service, operating up to 19 hours per... Read more →

The operators SETA Modena and TEP Parma, both providing carrier services in the Emilia-Romagna region in the North of Italy, have placed orders for 18 modern Solaris Trollino 12 vehicles. Eight of the trolleybuses commissioned will join the fleet of SETA Modena, the other ten will go to TEP Parma.... Read more →

The Fort Worth Transportation Authority (Trinity Metro) has awarded New Flyer a contract for four heavy-duty, thirty-five-foot Xcelsior CHARGE battery-electric buses. The zero-emission buses (ZEBs) support a new route called The Dash, a zero-emission service connecting Downtown Fort Worth with its Cultural District and utilizing Trinity Metro’s first all- electric... Read more →

The Milan, Italy carrier ATM Milano intends to phase out diesel buses by 2030. An essential milestone on this path was the launch of a tender for the supply of up to 250 electric buses with a total value of up to €192 million. ATM Milano has selected Solaris as... Read more →

The state of Virginia will allocate more than $12 million in state funding to deploy electric transit buses in three Virginia localities, using nearly $9 million from the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust (VW Trust) that the Commonwealth received as part of its settlement with Volkswagen. In total, 17 electric buses... Read more →

The Artois-Gohelle transport authority (SMT-AG) has inaugurated France’s first refueling station for hydrogen buses. The entire clean hydrogen production, storage and distribution chain is equipped with McPhy technologies. The SMT-AG has attributed to ENGIE, via its subsidiary GNVERT, the design, supply, installation and maintenance of the Houdain-Divion hydrogen gas distribution... Read more →

Volvo Active Driver Assist (VADA) 2.0, a comprehensive collision mitigation system, will be made standard in the new Volvo VNR and VNL models, and available on VNX models, later this year. The system enhances the original VADA platform by integrating radar and camera capabilities to help drivers maintain a safe... Read more →

The Volvo Group has signed an agreement with NVIDIA jointly to develop the decision0-making system of autonomous commercial vehicles and machines. Utilizing NVIDIA’s end-to-end artificial intelligence platform for training, simulation and in-vehicle computing, the resulting system is designed to safely handle fully autonomous driving on public roads and highways. The... Read more →

Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) has agreed to purchase five 35-foot Proterra Catalyst E2 electric buses and five 125 kW Proterra plug-in charging systems. CLT, which serves approximately 46 million passengers each year, becomes the ninth airport to purchase Proterra electric buses for ground transportation and joins a growing list... Read more →

The Chilean Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, Gloria Hutt, recently announced a new order for 183 BYD electric buses for the Chilean capital of Santiago, due to arrive in August of this year. The 183 BYD electric buses will join the 100 electric buses that BYD and local partner Enel... Read more →

VDL Bus & Coach has expanded its Citea Electric product range with the Citea XLE-145 Electric. With this 14.5-meter e-bus, VDL Bus & Coach adds a new length variant to the available electric Low Entry buses. VDL introduced 12- and 12.9-meter electric Low Entry length variants in September 2018. In... Read more →

ZF has developed the Dual-cam two-lens camera specifically designed for the commercial truck market and to be used in concert with other ZF ADAS technologies. The camera features ZF’s longitudinal and lateral vehicle control expertise combined with Mobileye’s advanced EyeQ4 processor. Part of ZF’s S-Cam4 family of automotive-grade cameras, the... Read more →