Trucking news and briefs for Friday, June 2, 2023:
Daimler Truck's Mitsubishi Fuso brand and Toyota's Hino Motors announced this week the companies will merge and jointly develop alternative fuel and zero emission solutions and autonomous technologies.
Details on the scope and nature of the collaboration including the name, location, shareholding ratio and corporate structure of the new holding company will be decided over the course of the next 18 months. The parties envisage signing of definitive agreements in the first quarter of 2024 and aim to close the transaction by the end of 2024.
"This close collaboration will enable us to accelerate the decarbonization of the transportation industry, creating an even stronger Japanese commercial vehicle manufacturer," said Karl Deppen, CEO of MFTBC. "Under the two well-established brands of Fuso and Hino, we will continue to take a leading role in serving customer needs in Japan, Asia and beyond."
Daimler Truck in April launched its Rizon brand, an all-electric medium-duty truck OEM that will debut with three cab-over Class 4-5 trucks, which was part of the market that Fuso once focused on in North America.
Mack Trucks announced Thursday that the recently introduced Mack MD Electric model is approved to be a part of California’s Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP).
HVIP can help accelerate the commercialization of zero-emission trucks by offering point-of-sale vouchers to increase the affordability of advanced technologies. The MD Electric is the second Mack model to be a part of the program. The first is the Mack LR Electric refuse vehicle, which became eligible for HVIP in 2021.
