Eaton announced it is contributing several components to truck manufacturers participating in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) SuperTruck II program. (Earlier post.) SuperTruck II is a partnership between the DOE, truck manufacturers and equipment suppliers seeking to improve freight efficiency to more than 100% over an equivalent 2009 model,... Read more →

New Flyer of America Inc. and New Flyer Industries Canada ULC, subsidiaries of NFI Group Inc. (“NFI”), the largest bus manufacturer in North America, unveiled the Xcelsior CHARGE H2—ts fuel cell-electric heavy-duty transit bus—and announced that both the forty-foot and sixty-foot model have successfully completed the Federal Transit Administration (FTA)... Read more →

In a coordinated effort to accommodate the ever-increasing demand for the transportation of goods while also reducing its impact on society, Volvo Group collaborated closely with several key California stakeholders to demonstrate Eco-Drive technology as part of its involvement in the Zero Emission Drayage Truck Demonstration Project. The project, led... Read more →

Canada-based Lion Electric Co. (Lion) has unveiled its first all-electric Class 8 urban truck this morning. The Lion8 will be commercialized this Fall and the first vehicle will be delivered to Société des Alcools du Québec (SAQ). The Lion8 supports a battery capacity of up to 480 kWh (LG Chem... Read more →

The US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has selected nine projects as part of a multimillion-dollar effort funded jointly by the US Department of Energy (DOE), the California Energy Commission (CEC), and the Southcoast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) to advance the state of technology for natural... Read more →

Volvo Buses and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore have demonstrated the world’s first 12-meter autonomous electric bus. The Volvo bus will soon begin trials on the NTU campus. The bus is equipped with four lidar sensors which enables it to detect and stop for objects coming in its way.... Read more →

The US Department of Energy announced up to $51.5 million for new and innovative research of technologies for trucks, off-road vehicles, and the fuels that power them (DE-FOA-0002044). Funded through the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), this FOA addresses priorities in gaseous... Read more →

The Irizar Group is introducing the electric Irizar ie truck into its range of zero-emissions products. This stylish electric truck responds to several market needs and makes it possible to drive in cities and urban areas without creating any atmospheric or acoustic pollution. Irizar presented the ie truck within the... Read more →

Hydrogen suppliers & fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) automakers, Air Liquide, Hyundai, NEL, Nikola Motor, Shell and Toyota have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for hydrogen fueling components for the purpose of testing state-of-the-art heavy duty (HD) hydrogen fueling hardware to assist in standardization and speed to market for... Read more →

Borg-Warner reported that a major European commercial vehicle manufacturer has chosen the company’s proven High Voltage Hairpin (HVH) 410 electric motor for a plug-in hybrid electric truck (PHEV) to be launched in 2019. Generating 130 kW (174 hp) of power and 1,050 N·m of torque, the HVH motor will work... Read more →

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. announced an increased demand for renewable natural gas (RNG) from the refuse sector, particularly in California, where refuse trucks can be fueled by the very solid waste they haul. The City of Fresno signed a two-year agreement with Clean Energy for renewable liquified natural gas (RLNG)... Read more →

New Flyer Industries Canada ULC, the Canadian subsidiary of NFI Group, announced an award from the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) for an additional ten forty-foot, zero-emission, battery-electric Xcelsior CHARGE heavy-duty transit buses. TTC New Flyer Industries XE40 Xcelsior electric demo bus. This award follows on the original TTC order from... Read more →

Volvo Trucks delivered its first all-electric vehicles on 19 February: a refuse truck to waste and recycling company Renova, and a distribution truck to the logistics company DB Schenker and partner haulier TGM, operating in Sweden. The Volvo FL Electric, Volvo’s first all-electric vehicle, is developed for distribution, refuse handling... Read more →

The European Parliament and the Council have reached provisional agreement on a regulation setting, for the first time in the EU, strict CO2 emission standards for trucks. Under the agreement, emissions from new trucks will have to be 15% lower by 2025 and 30% lower in 2030 compared to 2019... Read more →

Mercedes-Benz Trucks has handed over a fully electric eActros truck to Murg Valley (Southern Germany)-based logistics company Logistik Schmitt. As part of the eWayBW project, commercial transport will be electric on the B462 federal road around Rastatt with the test operation of catenary trucks as of 2020. On an approximately... Read more →

Kalmar, part of Cargotec, has selected Cummins to be the electrification solution provider for the next-generation electric terminal tractor offering for the European market. The Cummins driveline solution eliminates need for a transmission on a terminal tractor, simplifying the overall system and reducing maintenance needs. Cummins will provide powertrain technology,... Read more →

StarMetro, the city of Tallahassee’s public transit system, has agreed to purchase 22 Proterra Catalyst FC buses to service Florida State University (FSU), bringing the StarMetro fleet to 27 battery-electric buses. FSU is one of the first universities in the nation to decommission its entire fossil-fuel powered fleet and upgrade... Read more →

New Flyer 40' (XHE40) and 60' (XHE60) Xcelsior fuel cell-electric buses (FCEBs), powered by Ballard FCveloCity-HD 85 kilowatt (kW) modules, have completed testing at The Altoona Bus Research and Testing Center under a program established by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Testing at the Altoona, Pennsylvania facility included evaluations of... Read more →

In a series of tweets on Friday, Nikola Motor, developer of heavy-duty hydrogen-electric trucks, said that it will introduce all-battery versions of the Nikola Two and Nikola Tre models at Nikola World in April. (Earlier post.) Nikola Tre. The battery-electric trucks will be available in 500 kWh, 750 kWh and... Read more →

AKASOL AG, a leading German producer of high-performance lithium-ion battery systems, is expanding its long-term framework agreement to supply a Swedish commercial vehicle manufacturer with high-performance battery systems for electric buses and trucks. AKASOL says the order volume is in the mid to high three-digit million-euro range. From 2020, the... Read more →

US-based Energy Impact Partners (EIP), a utility-backed energy investment and innovation firm, has invested $5.7 million (€5 million) in ViriCiti, a Europe-based EV fleet efficiency technology company (earlier post), in a Series A round. The investment is EIP’s first in a Europe-based firm. ViriCiti has developed and deployed a telematics... Read more →

One fuel cell electric bus (FCEB) operating in the United States has surpassed 29,000 hours of drive time and nine buses have exceeded 20,000 hours without major repairs or replacement of the fuel cell stack, according to the US Department of Energy (DOE). This is comparable to the life expectancy... Read more →

British bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis Ltd. (ADL) is expanding its product line, adding a double-decker model powered by a fuel cell drive. This new model is also equipped with ZF’s AxTrax AVE electric drive axle. ZF also provides additional hardware and software solutions for optimum performance. An initial prototype is... Read more →

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) staff will host a public workshop on 11 February to discuss ideas and strategies to reduce in-use emissions from heavy-duty diesel vehicles operating in the State of California. The objective of the workshop is to solicit stakeholder ideas and comments about potential strategies to... Read more →

Meritor, Inc. has 22 electrification programs with global OEMs that the company expects to put at least 130 fully electric medium- and heavy-duty commercial trucks on the road through 2020. These emission-free solutions offered under Meritor’s Blue Horizon technology brand have the potential to transform the industry by meeting the... Read more →

New Flyer of America Inc. has introduced Connect 360—a real-time, cloud-based business analytics dashboard for Xcelsior CHARGE battery-electric buses, operated by New Flyer Connect. New Flyer Connect is New Flyer’s cloud-based telematics technology that communicates real-time GPS and analytic data to optimize bus performance, driver efficiency, safety, and preventative maintenance.... Read more →

New Flyer of America Inc. and New Flyer Industries Canada ULC (collectively New Flyer), subsidiaries of NFI Group Inc. (NFI), the largest transit bus and motor coach manufacturer, have formed New Flyer Infrastructure Solutions, a service dedicated to providing safe, reliable, smart, and sustainable charging and mobility solutions. The New... Read more →

Kenworth Truck Company and Toyota Motor North America are collaborating to develop 10 zero-emission Kenworth T680s powered by Toyota hydrogen fuel cell electric powertrains. This collaboration is part of a $41-million Zero and Near-Zero Emissions Freight Facilities (ZANZEFF) grant preliminarily awarded by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), with the... Read more →

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Daimler Trucks announced that it will invest €500 million (around US$570 million) over the next years and create more than 200 new jobs in its global push to bring highly automated trucks (SAE level 4) to the road within a decade.... Read more →

Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) introduced the first SAE Level 2 automated truck in series production in North America with the latest enhancements to the Freightliner new Cascadia. Level 2 automation means the truck is capable of both lateral (steering) and longitudinal (acceleration/deceleration) control. According to NHTSA, 94% of crashes... Read more →

New Flyer of America Inc., the US subsidiary of NFI Group Inc. (NFI), the largest transit bus and motor coach manufacturer in North America, announced that the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) has awarded New Flyer a new contract for five sixty-foot (10 equivalent units) New Flyer Xcelsior CHARGE heavy-duty,... Read more →

BAE Systems, a global provider of more than 10,000 electric-hybrid, battery-electric, and fuel-cell electric systems, announced that the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) has ordered 194 electric-hybrid buses using the BAE Systems Series-ER extended range propulsion system. Series-ER components. The Series-ER uses the same components as the Series-E hybrid-electric system,... Read more →

DAF Trucks delivered its first fully electric truck to Dutch supermarket chain, Jumbo. The CF Electric was developed in a joint venture between DAF and VDL (earlier post), and will be used by Jumbo to supply its supermarkets in the south of the Netherlands. The first DAF CF Electric to... Read more →

Municipal transport operator MPK in Poznań, Poland and Solaris Bus & Coach signed a contract for the delivery of 21 electric buses: 15 articulated and 6 standard length. Pursuant to the agreement the whole order is to be completed by the end of February 2020. The total contract value is... Read more →

Porsche has commissioned a fully electric MAN eTGM (earlier post) for logistics operations at its Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen site. The truck is the first vehicle of this kind that has gone into series production in Germany. Both Porsche and MAN are members of the Volkswagen Group. The electric 32-tonne truck will soon... Read more →

The California Air Resources Board on Friday approved the Innovative Clean Transit regulation (ICT) (earlier post)—a first-of-its-kind regulation in the US that sets a statewide goal for public transit agencies to gradually transition to 100% zero-emission bus (ZEB) fleets by 2040. The ICT is part of a statewide effort to... Read more →

Volvo Trucks will introduce all-electric Volvo VNR regional-haul demonstrators in California next year, operating in distribution, regional-haul and drayage operations. Sales of the VNR Electric in North America will begin in 2020. The Volvo VNR Electric demonstration units will be based on the proven propulsion and energy storage technology currently... Read more →

Scania, a member of the Volkswagen Group, is developing a fuel cell refuse truck together with Renova, a waste handling company in western Sweden, fuel cell manufacturer Powercell Sweden AB, and JOAB, a manufacturer of truck bodies. The truck will feature a fully electrified powertrain as well as an electrified... Read more →

Volvo Buses is participating in a research project in which used electric bus batteries are used as solar energy storage units. Batteries from electric bus route 55 in Gothenburg, Sweden are being used for solar energy storage in a second-life application. This is part of a research project in which... Read more →

A new brief published by the International Transport Forum (ITF)—an intergovernmental organization at the OECD with 59 member countries—identifies proven measures that decrease road freight’s CO2 emissions. Moving goods by road consumes about 50% of all diesel produced; 80% of the global net increase in diesel use since 2000 comes... Read more →

ULEMCo and its R&D partner Revolve Technologies have demonstrated thermal efficiencies of 45% in engine control strategies for a 100% hydrogen-fueled engine being developed for the Mega Low Emissions (MLE) truck demonstrator unveiled earlier this year. (Earlier post.) The 100% hydrogen engine runs stably at air/fuel ratios in excess of... Read more →

Zhengzhou Yutong Bus Co., Ltd. will deliver 100 full electric buses to Chile. Having sent more than 20,000 vehicles to Latin America over the past 15 years, Yutong has become the leading Chinese bus supplier on the continent. The 100 full electric buses will be used by Buses Vule and... Read more →

King County Metro, the public transit authority of King County, Washington, which includes the city of Seattle, will soon begin testing long-range battery-powered buses that can travel more than 140 miles on a single charge, the latest milestone toward a zero-emission fleet. The latest models can travel nearly six times... Read more →

Rosenbauer Deutschland, a company of the Rosenbauer Group, and the Berlin Fire Department plan jointly to develop a hybrid electric fire engine in the next two years. The two have formed an “innovation partnership” which will be responsible for carrying out the project “eLHF” (German equivalent for “eRFF”/ electric rescue... Read more →

The California Air Resources Board adopted a new emissions tracking program that will help regulators identify vehicles with excess smog-related and greenhouse gas emissions. Real Emissions Assessment Logging (REAL) is part of the amendments to the OBD (On-board Diagnostic) Regulations approved by the Board at Thursday’s hearing. OBD systems mainly... Read more →

New Flyer of America Inc., a subsidiary of NFI Group Inc., the largest transit bus and motor coach manufacturer and parts distributor in North America, announced that New Flyer’s 60-foot articulated heavy-duty transit bus has become the first and only sixty-foot battery-electric bus to complete the Federal Transit Administration (FTA)... Read more →

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched the Cleaner Trucks Initiative (CTI) to further decrease NOx emissions from on-highway heavy-duty trucks and engines. The CTI will include a future rulemaking that will update the existing NOx standard which was last set in 2001 while also streamlining compliance and certification... Read more →

Ballard Power Systems has successfully closed a strategic collaboration transaction with Weichai Power Co., Ltd., initially announced in August. (Earlier post.) This strategic collaboration with Weichai—a leading automotive equipment manufacturer specializing in the production of powertrains, automobiles, intelligent logistics, automotive parts and components—underscores our high conviction in the opportunity for... Read more →

The European Parliament has backed plans for trucks to cut CO2 emissions by 2030. MEPs adopted a higher target (35%) than the European Commission (30%) for new trucks to reduce the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, with an intermediate target of 20% by 2025. Manufacturers will also have to... Read more →

The number of battery-electric buses ordered in Europe more than doubled in 2017 compared to 2016, reaching 1,031 vehicles, according to a new analysis by environmental NGO Transport & Environment. T&E estimates this to be equivalent to around 9% market share of new registrations in 2018. The are currently about... Read more →