The South Korean company Caris and Yuzhmash of Ukraine have signed an agreement for the construction of 5,000 electric buses and 7,800 charging stations. The Ukrainian state space agency also played a part in the contract.

Today the European Commission has adopted the EU Strategy for Energy System Integration and Hydrogen. The former tackles charging infrastructure and grids, while the H2 Strategy focusses on long-haul and heavy-duty vehicles and hydrogen infrastructure.

The Polish Ministry of Climate Change announced a few weeks ago that it intends to promote the purchase of electric buses with two programmes with a total volume of 90 million euros. Both support programmes are to make it easier for municipalities and districts to purchase electric buses for passenger transport.

After a three-month construction period, battery manufacturer Microvast celebrated the topping-out ceremony of its new European headquarters and the production building for Li-ion battery systems in Ludwigsfelde.

A further 150 BYD electric buses went into service in Santiago de Chile, bringing the total number of BYD electric buses in Chile to 455. Among other things, the new bus shipment will serve Avenida Bernardo O’Higgins, known as Alameda, in the historic part of the city.

The Austrian government is increasing purchase premiums and subsidies for charging infrastructure for zero-emission and plug-in hybrid vehicles from 1 July. This includes zero-emission and plug-in hybrid cars, zero-emission heavy and light commercial vehicles, zero-emission buses, and electric two-wheelers – including e-motorbikes, mopeds, e-bikes and e-cargo bikes. 

The city of Wellington is to increase the number of electric trolley buses from only two per cent up to 22 per cent. Through service provider Metlink, 98 new e-buses have now been ordered, which are to arrive in New Zealand between mid-2021 and early 2023.

The six largest municipalities in Denmark will now procure only electric city buses from 2021. To this end, the cities of Copenhagen, Aarhus, Odense, Aalborg, Vejle and Frederiksberg have now signed the Climate Cooperation Agreement with the Danish Ministry of Transport.

In the USA, Momentum Dynamics is supplying its 300-kilowatt wireless charging systems for ten new battery-electric buses BYD has delivered to Link Transit in Wenatchee, Washington.

The European Commission supports the establishment of charging stations for electric vehicles in Schleswig-Holstein through the German state. At least 1,500 additional charging points are to be created in Germany’s northernmost federal state and up to six bus depots are to be equipped with charging stations.

Siemens Smart Infrastructure has received an order from Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft Nürnberg (VAG) to equip the newly acquired electric bus port with a medium-voltage connection and charging infrastructure.

Solaris has received another electric bus order from Poland. Katowice’s public transport operator PKM needs five Solaris Urbino 12 electric to complement the ten e-buses already ordered by the capital of Silesia. They are set for delivery in Q2/2021.

The English vehicle developer Arrival, previously known primarily for electric delivery vans, has presented the concept of an electric bus. The Arrival Bus is to be manufactured in local micro-factories designed for the assembly of all Arrival vehicles.

Mercedes-Benz has presented the articulated version of its electric city bus as eCitaro G and says deliveries will begin before the end of this year. The manufacturer also announces the first battery update – for both solo and articulated models.

Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) is also relying on hydrogen as part of the conversion of its bus fleet. After TMB had ordered a total of 23 articulated battery-electric buses from Solaris and Irizar in February, a tender for the purchase of the first fuel cell buses has now been launched.

Transdev Canada announced the investment of close to CAD$4.5 million in a new fleet of electric school buses with the Quebec company Lion. With a total of 31 vehicles, this move will make them the largest private operator of electric school buses in North America to date.

Bus and rail operator Abellio is launching its first fleet of electric buses in London. This week the first five buses were put into operation on route P5. This will mark a total of 34 electric buses to the C10 and P5 bus routes.

Volvo Buses has received an order from the Swedish public transit operator Vy Buss for 49 purely electric articulated buses. The vehicles will be used in the Swedish city of Jönköping from summer 2021.

In an economic stimulus package following the Corona crisis, the German government has included several measures to promote electric mobility. The most powerful one is that the state is doubling its share of the environmental bonus in the form of a new “innovation premium”.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has announced approximately $130 million in grant selections to 41 projects. The Low- or No-Emission (Low-No) Grant program funds the deployment buses and corresponding facilities.

Solaris announced an electric bus order from Poznań, Poland: MPK Poznań has ordered 37 electric buses, which are to be delivered in the second half of 2021. The first 31 of them are 12-metre solo buses, the remaining six comes as articulated 18-metre buses.

Krakow’s public transport operator Miejskie Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacyjne has ordered 50 electric articulated buses from Solaris. The 50 new electric articulated buses are to be delivered within one year.

The Polish bus manufacturer Solaris and the Romanian city of Craiova have signed a contract for the delivery of 16 Urbino 18 electric electric buses. The articulated vehicles are scheduled to arrive in Craiova in the first half of 2021.

The Dutch manufacturer Ebusco will deliver 13 new electric buses to Frankfurt am Main for operator Transdev Rhein-Main at the end of this year to replace the current diesel buses. These are the 12-metre long Ebusco 2.2 low-floor versions.

With the start of series production in Q3/2020, the CeTrax electric central drive will be ZF’s second electric drive for EVs and will be made in Friedrichshafen. The Polish bus manufacturer Solaris is one of the first major customers.

BYD delivered 15 electric buses to the Spanish capital this week. The new electric buses will be replacing diesel buses and will go into operation on line 52 between Puerta del Sol and Santamarca.

Lightyear, the startup company that emerged from the solar team at the Technical University of Eindhoven, presented its long-distance solar car Lightyear One last year. Now the startup wants to push the development of solar roofs for electric vehicles with the Dutch company DSM.

The Chinese government has issued three national standards on safety requirements for electric vehicles and their batteries, which will come into force on 1 January 2021. One of the standards relates to electric vehicles in general, another specifically to electric buses and the third to traction batteries.

MAN Truck & Bus is now giving details of its MAN Lion’s City 18 E articulated electric bus. The manufacturer has just announced that sales of the new model already started and in Cologne and Barcelona, the articulated e-bus is now also being integrated into regular service.

The Polish city of Lublin has ordered further electric buses from Solaris. The order from the municipal transport operator ZTM comprises a dozen Solaris Urbino 12 electric. This is the second order from Lublin within a few months for the Polish manufacturer.