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North America and Europe MHCV Alternative Power Update
Chris Fisher As the governments of Europe and North America (U.S. and Canada) continue to push for a transition from fossil fuel powered vehicles to zero-emission vehicles, a number of significant barriers to adoption will continue to hamper this initiative.
Significant barriers to adoption of zero-emission vehicles include the total cost of vehicle ownership, a lack of charging and grid infrastructure, truck resale values and duty cycle issues. The primary types of alternative propulsion that are in focus include Battery Electric, Hydrogen Fuel Cell and Hydrogen ICE engines and to a lesser degree, Natural Gas and Biodiesel ICE engines. The vast majority of the medium and heavy commercial vehicle industry support the transition to zero-emission vehicles but the short timeline for implementation is causing great concern throughout the industry.
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Volvo To Build Truck Plant in Mexico
GLOBAL REPORT
Chris Fisher In April 2024, Volvo announced that it will build a heavy-duty truck manufacturing plant in Mexico to supplement the Group’s U.S. production. The plant will provide additional capacity to support the growth plans of Volvo Trucks and Mack Trucks in the U.S. and Canadian markets, and support Mack truck sales in Mexico and Latin America. The plant is expected to be operational in 2026.
The new plant will be approximately 1.7 million square feet in size, and will focus on production of heavy-duty conventional vehicles for the Volvo and Mack brands. It will be a complete conventional vehicle assembly facility including cab body-in-white production and paint. At the time of this writing, Volvo has not announced the location of the new production facility.
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Q1 2024 Power Systems Research Truck Production Index (PSR-TPI) falls 4.5%
St. Paul, MN (April 15, 2024)— The Power Systems Research Truck Production Index (PSR-TPI) decreased from 116 to 111, or 4.5%, for the three-month period ending March 31, 2024, from Q4 2023. The year-over-year (Q1 2023 – Q1 2024) PSR-TPI was flat at 111. There was no change.
The PSR-TPI measures truck production globally and across six regions: North America, China, Europe, South America, Japan & Korea and Emerging Markets.
This data comes from OE Link™, the proprietary…
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South American Truck Production Index Climbs 3.4%
April 16, 2024— The Power Systems Research South America Truck Production Index (PSR-TPI) increased from 88 to 91, or 3.4%, for the three-month period ending March 31, 2024 (Q1 2024), from Q4 2023. The year-over-year (Q1 2023 – Q1 2024) PSR-TPI increased from 75 to 91, or 21.3%.
The PSR-TPI measures truck production globally and across six regions: North America, China, Europe, South America, Japan & Korea and Emerging Markets. The South America…
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Van Hool To End City Bus Production in Belgium
GLOBAL REPORT
Chris Fisher Van Hool has announced its exit from the City Bus business and focus on Hydrogen fuel cell coaches which appears to have been a serious miscalculation. As the market transitions away from internal combustion engine buses toward battery electric buses, Van Hool has been left behind.
Van Hool recently lost a bid for 300 electric city buses to BYD which assembles their buses in Hungary at a lower cost than Van Hool could manufacture these in Belgium. It was reported that the BYD bid was approximately 20% less than the Van Hool bid. This along with other issues will result in Van Hool ending most if not all of their bus and coach operations in Belgium and transfer the bus and coach making activities to their assembly plant in Macedonia.
However, Van Hool will need a significant cash infusion in a short period of time to cover the cost of their existing debt and the coming redundancy payments in order to stave off insolvency.
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Shell To Exit Light Duty FCEV Market in California
NORTH AMERICA REPORT
Chris Fisher As of Feb. 6, 2024, Shell permanently closed its seven light duty hydrogen fuel stations in California citing “hydrogen supply complications and other external market factors” for this decision. According to the below MOTORTREND article, this leaves 17 stations operational (although several are offline at the time of this writing) in the Bay Area, and just one in the Sacramento area.
Shell had already told industry outlet Hydrogen Insight that it would stop building any of the 48 new California stations it had planned—a significant number for the state—and that the company “made the decision to permanently close its light duty station network in California in early 2024.”
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Q4 2023 Power Systems Research Truck Production Index (PSR-TPI) Climbs 8.4%
St. Paul, Minnesota, USA— The Power Systems Research Truck Production Index (PSR-TPI) increased from 107 to 116, or 8.4% for the 12 months ended Dec. 31, 2023. For the fourth quarter of 2023, ending Dec. 31, 2023, the index increased from 112 to 116, or 3.6%, compared to Q3 2023.
The PSR-TPI is a quarterly truck production report that measures global truck production across six regions: North America, China, Europe, South America, Japan & Korea and Emerging Markets.…
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South America TPI Expected To Climb 22% in 2024
St. Paul, Minnesota, USA— The Power Systems Research Truck Production Index (PSR-TPI) increased from 107 to 116, or 8.4% for the 12 months ended Dec. 31, 2023. For the fourth quarter of 2023, ending Dec. 31, 2023, the index increased from 112 to 116, or 3.6%, compared to Q3 2023.
South America. Medium and heavy commercial vehicle production is expected to increase by 22.1% this year after a significant decline in 2023 primarily driven by a weaker economy and…
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Electrify Where It Makes Sense
NORTH AMERICA REPORT
Chris Fisher Energy and the environment are the issues that will redefine the trucking industry over the next decade. That’s what Chris Spear, president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations, told a room full of industry experts in November at the annual Cummins-Meritor and Pressure Systems International fleet technology event held in San Antonio, Texas.
But he said the timeline the industry has placed on the adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEV) and to achieve zero emissions are “completely unachievable.”
“It takes time. We’re not going to get there starting in 2030. We’re not going to meet that by 2035. It ain’t gonna happen,” Spear said, “and when it fails, it’s not only going to be embarrassing, it’s going to cost a lot of people their jobs. To me, that’s just unacceptable.”
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Transitioning from ICE Buses to Zero-Emission Engines
NORTH AMERICA REPORT
Chris Fisher During the past few months, we have seen significant changes in the bus market in Europe and North America as operations convert from internal combustion engines to zero-emission buses.
In Europe, Scania and Volvo are moving from building complete buses to a chassis only build. The high cost of zero-emission buses and a competitive market are primary reasons for this. The expected growth of zero-emission buses is forcing the OEMs to better streamline operations, and we expect to see other large OEMs transition down this path.
Source: AMS
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