California-based student transportation services company Zūm has completed a $140-million Series E funding round led by Singapore-based global investment firm GIC. UK-headquartered decarbonization investor Climate Investment and existing investors including Sequoia and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 also participated. This latest round brings Zūm’s total funding to $350 million. The new funding will be used to… Read more »
Tag: The Vehicles
Canada looks to Norway for lessons in how to manage the transition to EVs
Norway is the world’s undisputed EV capital—roughly a quarter of all cars on its roads are now EVs, and the country is on track to end the sale of gas and diesel cars by 2025. Canada plans to end the sale of fossil-burners by 2035, and policymakers are looking to the Scandinavian country for answers… Read more »
Firstgreen’s new electric skid steer loader
In the beginning stages of a technological transformation, the new tech tends to conquer the best use cases first. Regular Charged readers will be familiar with EV-friendly applications such as drayage trucks, delivery vans, school buses and suburban yuppies, but here’s one you may not have heard of: skid steer loaders. A skid steer is… Read more »
USPS’s pilot of Canoo electric vans could signal opportunity for other commercial EV makers
EV startup Canoo seemed to have fallen off the media radar, until a recent volume order for its electric vans brought it back to the headlines. Now the company has announced another high-profile deal, this time with the United States Postal Service (USPS), which, after a decade or two of deliberation, finally appears to be… Read more »
Food company Mars to order 300 electric heavy-duty trucks
Some may think of Mars as a candy company (your correspondent has a weakness for peanut M&Ms), but it’s a food industry giant that owns 50 global brands, and operates a large truck fleet. Now the company has announced plans to put 300 heavy-duty electric trucks into operation in Europe by 2030, in partnership with… Read more »
Only 13 EVs currently qualify for a US tax credit
Sometimes public policy gets skewered on the horns of a dilemma. The Buy American provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act are aimed at protecting US jobs (and national security) by making EVs with substantial amounts of battery components from “nations of concern”—namely China—ineligible for tax credits. That’s a worthy goal, but to a certain extent… Read more »
Iveco Bus to supply electric models to QBUZZ in the Netherlands
Italy-based bus manufacturer Iveco Bus, one of the eight commercial vehicle brands of Iveco Group, has won a tender to supply 140 electric buses to public transport operator QBUZZ in the Zuid-Holland Noord concession area in the Netherlands. The 102 CROSSWAY Low Entry ELEC and 38 E-WAY units are scheduled to begin service by December… Read more »
Revoy’s battery trailer turns a semi-truck into a hybrid
Trucking firms are caught in a bit of a bind—emissions regulations are tightening, but electric heavy-duty trucks come with high upfront costs. A startup called Revoy offers an interesting transitional solution—the Revoy EV is basically a small trailer full of batteries that attaches to a diesel semi-truck to effectively turn it into a hybrid. At… Read more »
BVG Berlin orders 50 Solaris electric buses
Polish bus manufacturer Solaris has received an order for 50 of its Urbino 18 electric buses from Berlin public transport company BVG, which currently operates more than 120 Solaris Urbino 12 and Urbino 18 buses. Delivery is scheduled for 2024 and 2025. The contract is part of a framework agreement that can be extended over… Read more »
New EU emissions targets would lead to end of new diesel truck sales by 2040
The road to a new set of emissions regulations tends to be a long one, winding through committees, public comment periods and court challenges, but as far as a layman can tell, the European Commission has reached the finish line, agreeing on CO2 targets for heavy-duty vehicles that would require phasing out almost all sales… Read more »
