What have we seen at Next Mobility Exhibition?

It opened its doors on Wednesday 12 October and will close today, Friday 14, the first edition of Next Mobility Exhibition, the trade fair on sustainable mobility, organised in the premises of Fieramilano Rho.

Fifteen manufacturers attended as exhibitors (110 companies in total). Proceeding in random order, Temsa and BMC vehicles were brought to Milan by the Italian dealer Troiani: the 12-metre electric Temsa Evenue Electron, the 9-meter (also electric) MD9 Electricity, and the 8.5-metre BMC Neocity EV.

On display also the Novus Cityline by Altas Auto. There are also two vehicles with Indcar‘s logo: the Mobi City 8 CNG XL and the Wing 8. The former is a gas-powered minibus for urban use, while the Wing is a tourist minibus also homologated to be powered by HVO and available in a compressed natural gas version.

IIA at NME with CaetanoBus

Then there was Industria Italiana Autobus, which formalised its partnership with CaetanoBus for the production and marketing in Italy of Class I hydrogen-powered vehicles. And so the stand featured the H2.City based on Toyota Fuel Cell technology. Also at the stand, the diesel-powered Vivacity 8 and the 12-metre full electric Citymood 12e.

Irizar e-mobility, on the other hand, presented itself with the i3 on Scania chassis and the ie tram in 12-meter version, flagship of the e-mobility division of the manufacturer from the Basque Country.

Anadolu Isuzu joined the Italian exhibition with no less than five vehicles on display: Novociti Volt, an eight-metre electric city bus; Novociti Life, another eight-metre Class I, but with a diesel engine; Novociti Life II, an eight-metre diesel intercity vehicle with a completely lowered floor; Grand Toro diesel and Kendo 13 CNG, the latter last year’s winner of the Sustainable Bus Award 2022 in the Class II category.

Iveco Bus at NME

The Iveco Bus line-up is also well represented: Urbanway hybrid, the electric E-Way, in the double 9.5-metre and 12-metre versions. So from electric to gas, with the CNG-powered Streetway and the Crossway Low Entry, also with CNG tanks. Finally, the Daily Acces minibus also running on natural gas and biomethane. The manufacturer announced at NME that it will start producing bus batteries in Turin, while from April 2023 next-generation bus production will begin at a new plant in Foggia, Italy. 

Three, instead, were the buses brought by Karsan: the Bursa-based manufacturer presented itself at NME with the short e-Jest, the midibus e-Atak and the twelve-metre e-ATA, the latter crowned with the Sustainable Bus Award 2023.

Four MAN vehicles, the Lion’s Coach (dressed in FlixBus green), the Lion’s City E full electric, the Intercity LE and the Neoplan Skyliner coach (in Itabus livery)

Otokar too attended in mass: Italian premiere for the eCentro C, a 6-metre electric minibus. Then a 12-metre e-Kent, a Kent CNG also 12 metres long, and the 600th bus distributed by Mauri Bus in Italy, a Vectio U Low Entry.

Two sizes and two buses for Rampini: the newly launched six-metre electric Sixtron and the eight-metre hydrogen-powered Hydron, a great novelty for the Italian company.

There are also two buses for Solaris: one electric and one H2-powered. Here is the electric Urbino 9 Low Entry and the hydrogen-powered Urbino 18 metre fuel cell.

Alongside the manufacturers, as always, the galaxy of components and IT solutions. It is worth mentioning, then, ZF (present with the autonomous driving shuttle), Voith, ABB, Almaviva, Bledsystem, Enel X, A2A e-mobility, Eni (which has launched HVolution), Kiepe Electric, Loop Energy, Maior, Optibus.