Daimler Truck and the Volvo Group have now founded their announced fuel cell joint venture as the Volvo Group acquired 50 per cent of the shares in the existing company Daimler Truck Fuel Cell. The partners have also agreed to rename the company Cellcentric.

Hamburg public transport operator Verkehrsbetriebe Hamburg-Holstein (VHH) has completed the tender for a further 32 electric buses. The contracts were awarded to Irizar, MAN and Volvo. Delivery of the new vehicles is scheduled to begin at the end of 2021.

Volvo Group has formed a new business division, Volvo Energy, to streamline electrification. They will look to bundle internal activities around energy and charging but also provide used batteries to external customers for energy storage solutions.

The Volvo Group and Daimler Truck AG have signed the binding agreement to establish the announced joint venture for the development, production and marketing of fuel cell systems ready for series production.

Volvo Buses has announced a further charging option for its electric buses for the coming year: starting in the fall of 2021, the manufacturer will also offer a roof-mounted pantograph for its Volvo 7900 Electric.

Those having grown up in the more rural areas or outer districts of a town may remember the book buses. Volvo has given the concept of these mobile libraries new life as they launch two all-electric buses full of books in Gothenburg.

Volvo Buses is manufacturing at least ten electric buses for the Swedish city of Västerås. The operator there has commissioned the manufacturer to supply ten articulated Volvo e-buses. The contract also includes an option for seven additional electric buses.

Volvo Buses is providing the batteries from its electric buses with a second life as stationary storage on a large scale. Following individual pilot projects, Volvo Buses has now concluded an agreement with Batteryloop, that covers all batteries for the manufacturer’s electric buses worldwide.

The northern Norwegian city of Bodø has ordered 31 electric buses from Volvo. The contract also covers the charging infrastructure and maintenance. When the buses go into service in July 2021, they will be the northernmost electric buses in the world and the first to be put into operation north of the Arctic Circle.

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.

Daimler Truck and the Volvo Group intend to establish a joint venture to develop and build fuel cells for heavy-duty commercial vehicles. Although the letter of intent just signed is non-binding, a final agreement is expected to be concluded by the end of the year.

Volvo has added new features to the S-Charge series of hybrid buses. The vehicles can now run electrically at higher speeds and cover longer distances than before.

Volvo Buses has received another major order for electric buses from the Swedish city of Malmö. The bus operator Nobina has ordered 60 articulated battery-electric buses. Single-body electric buses from Volvo are already on the road in the southern Swedish city.

Volvo Buses aims to give its e-bus batteries a second life. In cooperation with Stena Property and Stena Recycling, the company will use its electric bus batteries as stationary energy storage in the Fyrklövern complex in Gothenburg.

In the UK, Birmingham Airport has put six Volvo electric buses into operation to replace the diesel buses it has used to date. ABB is supplying the charging infrastructure for the vehicles.

More than every third electric bus in the EU was built in Poland. The strength of the industry is based not only on the domestic manufacturer Solaris – but also on the constantly high demand domestically, as Aleksandra Fedorska reports in her analysis.

In Sweden, Volvo Buses will deliver 157 electric articulated buses to Transdev starting in 2020. All of the coaches will be Volvo’s 7900 Electric Articulated model and will operate on several lines in the city of Gothenburg.

The Swedish vehicle manufacturers have introduced a new electric articulated bus, available in two different lengths, and capable of delivering up to 150 passengers at once. The Volvo 7900 Electric Articulated is to be officially unveiled in October.

The German battery system manufacturer Akasol has announced the extension of their long-term framework agreement to supply an unnamed Swedish commercial vehicle manufacturer with high-performance battery systems for electric buses and trucks.

A project in Gothenburg is using old Volvo bus batteries as a stationary energy storage with 200 kWh capacity. The pilot project is being run by the bus manufacturer Göteborg Energi, the housing association Riksbyggen and the Johanneberg Science Park.

Electric transport is coming to Sweden as Volvo delivers 13 all-electric buses to the city of Malmö in the Skåne region. The buses will service the entire route 7 in Malmö from mid-December and are among the bigger investments in electric public transit in the country.

Norway’s capital has taken the next step in its push for a zero emission transit system. Volvo received an order for 17 electric buses due to arrive in Oslo in summer 2019. They are part of a total of 70 all-electric buses various manufacturers share.

Volvo and ABB have been working successfully together in the past as they offer an integrated electric bus and charging option. Now Danish Aarhus and Lillehammer in Norway join the circle of cities that opt to electrify entire bus routes.

Volvo has received an order from the Belgian capital to deliver 90 hybrid buses, with most due to arrive this year. Brussels has recently raised the fine dust alarm and is increasingly cleaning its act through actions such as this.

The Polish city has ordered a fleet of eight fully electric and eight hybrid buses from Swedish automobile manufacturer Volvo. Inowroclaw is the first Polish city to decide to go fully electrified with their public transport network.

Volvo has received an order for 12 articulated hybrid buses to the Municipal Transport Company (MPK) in Cracow. In total, the Sweded have now sold more than 50 hybrid buses in Poland. The vehicles are produced in the Volvo’s factory in Wroclaw.

Charging at service stations by law: Great Britain wants to oblige service station providers to install EV charging points. This claim is part of a new law for electrified and autonomous vehicles, announced during the course of the traditional “Queen’s Speech” in parliament.
fleetnews.co.uk, electrek.co

Big deal for Tritium: The Australian quick charging manufacturer says to have won a tender of utility Stromnetz Hamburg. Tritium has until October to supply 52 units of its quick-charger Vefill, that provides a 11kW AC output and is compatible with CHAdeMO and CCS.
electriccarsreport.com, tritium.com.au

Autonomous EV sharing by Renault-Nissan: The Franco-Japanese alliance wants to build up ride sharing services with self-driving EVs. Ogi Redzic, head of Renault-Nissan’s Connected Vehicles and Mobility Services division said, this new business line shall kick-off “certainly within 10 years.”
europe.autonews.com

Volvo’s biggest electric bus order to date has been handed in by Swedish Malmö. The city ordered 13 Volvo 7900 Electric that shall roll on Malmö’s streets by late 2018. According to Volvo, this is the biggest individual order for the 7900 Electric it ever received.
volvobuses.com

Europe’s biggest cargo bike sharing: Green Moves Rheinland, a subsidiary of eco energy provider Naturstrom, wants to kick-off the biggest rental programme for electric cargo bikes in Europe, namely in Cologne. Donk-EE will be presented at June, 28 with further details to follow only afterwards.
presseportal.de (in German)

It is the first time opportunity charging is implemented in the UK. Eight electric Volvo buses will be delivered to Harrogate, where they are to enter service in 2018. The 7900 Electric models will be charged automatically via an overhead mast and pantograph using the common interface OppCharge. The latter has spread to twelve countries already, unifying charging for vehicles of various makers.
automotiveworld.com

Green drive at Vattenfall: The Swedish utility flipped the switch this January to electrify its entire fleet. Over the next five years, 3,500 vehicles in Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany will be replaced by electric alternatives. They will cover all areas, from passengers over technical support and maintenance.
vattenfall.com

Charging India: 1,200 EV charging stations shall come to India’s main roads, according to the government’s latest push to go electric. It also includes 200 fast-chargers. A pilot project is to start in Nagpur for the electrification of commercial vehicles.
indiatoday.in

Meanwhile, National Grid is to install 1,200 EV charge points as well but only in Massachusetts over the next three years. They are to cover 140 locations at work-places as well as multi-dwellings and include fast-chargers. The proposal is pending approval by the state’s Department of Public Utilities.
nationalgridus.com

Tritium goes Torrance: Australian infrastructure provider Tritium that makes the Veefil station has set foot into California. It is its first oversea facility and is located in Torrance, from where it is to offer customer service, local manufacturing and R&D in the Americas. Regional partners wanted!
reneweconomy.com

More than 2,000 hybrid buses have been sold by Volvo Buses to twenty countries to date. Introduced in 2010, Great Britain has been the biggest buyer so far but new markets have been opened up in Denmark, Hungary and Poland recently.
volvobuses.com

RWE goes USA: The German utility provider and Daimler together with two American partners have installed 26 charging points at the campus of the University of California in San Diego. Here, they want to test the communication standard ISO/IEC 15118 with electric Smarts for the next three years.
timesofsandiego.com

Plug-in hybrid bus: As of May last year, plug-in Volvo buses have been undergoing field tests in Gothenburg. The results show that the buses are popular with passengers and drivers and with residents at the route. The hybrid buses are recharged at the two end depots and capable of an all-electric range of 7 kilometres. Volvo wants to start commercial production early 2016.
automotiveworld.com

VW e-load Up for airports: Volkswagen’s cargo-carrying small EV has been on display at the Hannover Messe industrial fair this week equipped as a ‘Follow Me’ airport vehicle. The cargo version of the e-Up had been shown for first time last month in Berlin and is said to make it into production eventually.
indianautosblog.com