Ivalo, Finland, approximately 300 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle in the middle of the wilderness. Here, Hankook Tire will establish its own European wintertyre testing facility. The global manufacturer of tyres has recently signed a contract to build the facility with Test World Oy, a Finnish independent vehicle and tyre testing company (subsidiary of Millbrook Group Ltd). The testing centre will have state-of-the-art workshop facilities, as well as offices, meeting and social rooms. Preparations for the construction and design work had started immediately after the signing of the agreement. Hankook expects the entire site to be operational from December 2016. “Hankook Tire has largely expanded R&D in Europe since the initial opening of our facility in 1997,” said Klaus Krause, Head of the Hankook Tire Europe Technical Centre (ETC). “Now we are one of the main suppliers to many premium vehicle manufacturers, including all German brands Audi, BMW, MAN, Mercedes-Benz Car and Truck, MINI, and Porsche. This requires a drastic increase in testing capacity, also for the expansion of our future winter original equipment business".

Solaris Bus & Coach has been increasing orders from Germany. Direct to Munich the most recent supply. Here the local bus operator Martin Geldhauser GmbH & Co took delivery of four Solaris Urbino 12 buses. The vehicles have a cutting-edge design which provides robust rigidity while being unusually light in weight. Innovative skin-on-skin assembly ensures lower maintenance and running costs as well as highly distinguished aesthetics. They are fitted with Euro VI DAF/PACCAR MX 11 engine and automatic Voith Diwa 6 gearbox. In the spacious and bright interior there are 19 pedestal-free seats and a fully low floor between the first and the second axle thanks to the tanks placed on the front wheel arches. Martin Geldhauser is a long-date Solaris customer: in the period 2004-2015 the German operator ordered forty-eight Solaris buses in total.

The Paris public transport company RATP officially starts testing the new generation of Solaris Urbino 12 electric bus. The agreement between Solaris and RATP stipulates that the vehicle will be tested in regular passenger’s service for the next two months. The project is closely linked to RATP’s project to make its whole fleet emission-free by 2025. The Solaris electric bus arrived in Paris is based on the new Urbino construction premiered at the IAA exhibition in 2014. The vehicle will be equipped with a 240 kWh battery and a plug-in charging system. Solaris in co-operation with Ekoenergetyka will provide the external charging station with a power of 80 kW. A further innovative solution is the use of the newest ZF AVE 130 drive axle, in which two independent electric motors are mounted close to the wheels. It brings down overall weight even further and at the same time increases the space inside the bus. There are 30 seats, including 16 pedestal-free seats. Energy-efficient LED lighting is used both inside the bus as well as for all exterior lamps. Drivers can find an ergonomic cab, with a higher seating position, a much bigger widescreen and the intuitive touch-screen dashboard, now available across Solaris’s range of buses and trams.

Ziehl-Abegg has been awarded for innovation in the “Hidden Champions” Awards organized by the German news channel n-tv and dedicated to leading small to medium enterprises (SME). The submissions and proposals for the awards were analysed by a professional jury and a Board of Trustees made up of high profile individuals. In addition, all submissions were examined in depth by n-tv's Business Editorial Department which conducted its own research. The motivation given by the jury is the following: "“Ziehl-Abegg is one of the leading international manufacturers of fans for ventilation and air conditioning, as well as drive motors for elevators. It goes on to say that the strength of the company is based on continuous further product development”. Specific reference is made to the gearless, electric drive for city buses (ZAwheel) and the extremely quiet and energy-efficient fans which have been developed on the basis of knowledge gained in the field of bionics. The film, which the n-tv Editorial Team produced in the lead-up to the event, can be viewed online at: http://www.n-tv.de/Spezial/mittelstandspreis_2015/Ziehl-Abegg-article16330291.html

A special Mercedes-Benz Travego M adorned with 135 m LED fairy lights is available for customers who can use it for an evening in the pre-Christmas period for their very own Christmas tour. There are already concrete plans: the Christmas Travego is to accompany the Regensburg Cathedral Choir to a selected Christmas concert. An enterprise from Augsburg intends to use the Christmas Travego to accompany severely disabled children to an event free of charge, and a Straubing bus and coach company is planning to take a kindergarten group to and from a Christmas market. The idea for this unusual Christmas Travego came about at the Mercedes-Benz bus and coach sales office in Munich. The Christmas scene was developed by the DesignStudio at Mannheim's bus and coach plant, whilst the livery and light system was created by the bus and coach refiner Heymann. The Travego M was originally pure white, and its light system controls now feature multi-stage programming. The system can be switched on and off from the driver's workstation. In the luggage compartment the operator has several programs from which to choose: a steady light or blinking light with steplessly variable speeds. The colours red, green or blue can be activated in each case. These colours can be used in pairs or combined as a whole. All that remains is to wish you a Merry Christmas.