Scania has been granted SEK 30 million - about ‚3.3 million - by Sweden's Strategic Vehicle Research and Innovation Initiative (FFI) to develop a bio-fuel engine intended for heavy commercial vehicles.
This research will show how the best characteristics of the diesel and the Otto principle can be combined in an engine that can operate on both alcohol- and gaseous methane-based fuels.
The new CEO of Iveco is Alfredo Altavilla. He replaces Paulo Monferino, who has left to become Director of Health for the Piedmont region of Italy.
Sergio Marchionne, Fiat CEO, says of Monferino: "[His] qualities were behind such major accomplishments as the integration of Case and New Holland, and the return of Iveco to the highest level of competitiveness in the truck and commercial vehicle sector."
BEIJING, (Xinhua) -FAW Jiefang Automotive Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the FAW Group specializing in truck manufacturing based in northeast China's Jilin province, realized sales of 200,000 vehicles in the first three quarters this year, up 75 percent year on year.
Eaton Corporation has supplied key hybrid power technology and expertise to Daimler Trucks' Mercedes Benz BlueTec Atego Hybrid (earlier post), part of the new Mercedes-Benz Atego range of trucks.
Eaton supplied a hybrid system which included the lithium-ion battery pack and electric motor, and worked closely with Daimler to jointly develop the power management logic and controls.
Volvo AB is preparing itself to face competition from truck-makers in developing Asian markets, reports the Financial Times (FT). The chief executive of the Swedish truck-making group, Leif Johansson, has told the newspaper that he "absolutely" sees Chinese and Indian automakers as being a threat in future, adding, "We have stripped down their trucks [to assess quality] and they are improving very quickly." However, he said that while they currently build relatively low-cost vehicles, at the premium end of the market prices are "beginning to even out" as production costs climb further down the value chain. Johansson went on to say: "Indian and Chinese engineers, over time, will not be dramatically lower paid [than those in the west]. So the worst is behind us when it comes to the cost gap."