Proterra, Inc., developer of zero-emission commercial transit solutions, recently announced the first major deployment of its EcoRide BE35 zero-emission, fast-charge battery-electric transit buses by Foothill Transit, a public transport provider that operates bus services in Southern San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys, located in the eastern portion of Los Angeles County. Foothill Transit launched the Proterra EcoRide BE35 buses and related fast charging stations into its existing bus fleet and transit routes with the goal of establishing a full fleet of clean-fueled vehicles by 2011.

At the end of July, VDL Bus & Coach and Transdev SZ, based in Siegen in Germany, agreed on a contract for 40 vehicles of the Ambassador type. All units will be delivered in 2010. All the Ambassadors will be brought into operation this autumn and winter on the occasion of the change of the official timetable in the Wetzlar region.

Zhongtong Bus has decided to invest in what is called in the Chinese automotive terminology “new energy” and in energy-saving buses. The company’s plans have been accepted by the departments involved of the Shandong province government. When completed, the new unit will have a production capacity of 20,000 units, six new bus models will be launched for production at these premises. The project requires an investment of 1.138 billion Yuan. About 60% of the total production capacity will be realized by 2012, full production capacity should be available in 2013.

Britain has the potential to lead the world with low emission buses that meet the challenge of climate change head-on. Colin Robertson, CEO of Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL) said that early hybrid vehicles produced by his company had now been running in London operations for 20 months, covering almost 600,000 miles. On average, they have consistently recorded fuel and CO2 reductions of around 35% and demonstrated their reliability by being available for service virtually 100% of the time.

Recently launched in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro was the "Spectrum Road Panoramic" sightseeing bus, built by San Marino Neobus on a Scania K310 chassis.  A number of these vehicles has been acquired by Rio Breda Tourism Company, that will use them in sightseeing tours. This new service, called City Rio, will present the main historic and cultural attractions of this wonderful city to tourists from around the world. 

After just twelve years in production, the 30,000th Mercedes-Benz Citaro has now been delivered. On 25 August 2010 Michael Göpfarth, head of sales at the Mercedes-Benz Bus and Coach Unit of EvoBus GmbH, handed over the record-breaking vehicle to Walter Rathberger and Erich Haider, managing and executive directors of Linz Linien GmbH, at the Mannheim bus factory.

Recently, the Italian Rama Company, M2AP consulting company signed a cooperation agreement with Shanghai Leibo New Energy Auto Technology Limited and Jiangsu Alfa Bus Co.,Ltd for the development of electric city buses for the Italian market. Rama is a subsidiary of the Grosseto public transport company.

Balqon Corporation, a developer and manufacturer of zero emissions, heavy-duty electric vehicles and drive systems (earlier post), has received a $490,000 order for electric drive systems under a new dealer agreement with DynaProTech, a composite automotive parts manufacturer in the People’s Republic of China.

The Board of the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) has awarded New Flyer of America Inc. a contract for up to 475 buses. The contract is for 135 40-foot compressed natural gas (CNG) heavy-duty transit buses with options for up to an additional 340 CNG buses. This order adds approximately USD $216 million to the current New Flyer backlog.

Dongfeng Automobile Co. Ltd, a light commercial vehicle producer under Dongfeng Motor Corp, started construction of its new energy bus project in Xiangfan city, in central China's Hubei province recently, according to local media reports. As one of Dongfeng Motor's 16 new-energy vehicle projects, the production base in Xiangfan will cost the automaker a total investment of 650 million yuan ($95.7), It will be put into operation in 2012.

Two Japanese truck and bus manufacturers, Isuzu and Hino, and two Chinese competitors, FAW and Foton, are giving finishing touches to their India plans. Top executives of these companies have in recent months held a series of discussions with potential dealers to set up joint ventures or enter distribution and marketing tie-ups with companies, according to industry observers and dealers.

A brand new model in the Scania Touring coach range is the 3-axle Scania Touring HD 13.7 m with 440 hp, 2,300 Nm and Scania Opticruise. The Scania Touring is built in partnership with Chinese bodybuilder Higer and the 2-axle version generated a great deal of interest at Busworld in Kortrijk. Full parts and service support is provided by the global Scania organization. 

Mercedes-Benz caps its urban minibus range with the new Sprinter City 77. The three-axle 8.7-metre-long urban bus is based on a conventional Sprinter up to the B-pillar. The bus body with twin rear axle and continuous low-floor area is an exclusive in-house development for the Sprinter City 77. Thanks to its capacity of 40 passengers it plugs the gap between the Sprinter City 65 and the Citaro K.

The strategic alliance between ZF and Intel is now embarking on a different path with Openmatics. The open, powerful system will meet all requirements for telematics services and is to further standardize the market in the future. The system platform Openmatics consists of a hardware box and, in its core, the powerful Intel Atom processor. In terms of features and interfaces, the box is therefore ready to fulfill all present and many future telematics services for city buses - including multimedia applications.

Volvo Buses has received an order for 1,000 Volvo B7RLE bus chassis to deliver to Panama City. Panama City in Panama has more than one million inhabitants. A major program is currently under way to modernize the city’s transportation system, and the 1,000 Volvo buses will operate on routes in all city districts.

ZF presents its innovative bus transmission EcoShift at the IAA 2010. The special feature of the 6-speed manual transmission: The basic version is a flexible platform that is modularly extensible. The selection made was in favor of a manual basic transmission that is based on an extensible modular design principle and which, as a platform, is the basis for additional transmission variants.

The American battery producer Ener1 has signed up Hyundai Heavy Industries as a new customer for its Li-ion batteries. Hyundai in Korea will receive these Li-ion battery packs for electric buses; the packs are similar configurations as the packs currently in operation in California with AC Transit. The Hyundai contract is immediate; packs will be in buses on the road this year.

The Anaheim Transportation Network (ATN) announced a partnership with NexGen Power Group Inc., based in San Clemente, CA, to test a fully functional heavy-duty, zero-emission, battery-powered transit bus for one year beginning December 2010. NexGen Power will retrofit two buses from diesel to an electric operating platform to perform a full operating day.

ArvinMeritor, Inc. reinforces its commitment to serve the Bus & Coach market in China with improvements in the company's aftersales service and support system. "To be successful in China, we understand the need to provide our customers with world-class support throughout the lifecycle of our products," said Jason Apter, managing director, China & Korea. "One of the core elements of our localization strategy is to bring ArvinMeritor's industry aftersales service and support capabilities to China."

ArvinMeritor, Inc. reinforces its commitment to serve the Bus & Coach market in China with improvements in the company's aftersales service and support system. "To be successful in China, we understand the need to provide our customers with world-class support throughout the lifecycle of our products," said Jason Apter, managing director, China & Korea. "One of the core elements of our localization strategy is to bring ArvinMeritor's industry aftersales service and support capabilities to China."