What makes the Gold Line Edition models special is the fact that all these bikes feature sport hand-painted gold lines along with custom colour schemes. Save for the tweaks to the aesthetics, there are no other changes on these bikes. And the entire mechanical and feature setup remains unchanged. These bikes will reach the dealerships sometime around the first quarter of 2022.

“Many of the new Gold Line Edition designs start with a two-colour base scheme, where the joining point between the two colours is flattened down. The gold line is then carefully hand-applied, usually in one continuous stroke by the artist, using a very specialised soft-bristled sword-liner brush. Once the pin stripe is in place, it’s sealed against the elements with a final clear coat of lacquer,” the company said in a press note sent today.

“Just like every hand-lined Triumph, the artist adds the finishing detail to each Gold Line Edition by signing their work with their initials, providing a personal touch that makes every hand-painted Triumph special,” it added.

The highlight of the Mercedes-Benz eCitaro G vehicle is the solid-state batteries. This battery technology has been dubbed a pioneering achievement in automotive construction. Each of these buses has seven battery packs, possessing energy of 441 kWh which is capable of delivering a practical range even under daily taxing conditions. The electric motor of an eCitaro is capable of producing 2 x 485 Nm of torque.

(Also read | Mercedes S-Class 2021 to launch in India on June 17)

These buses are 18.13-metre in length with low floors and four doors. The seating arrangement also has three special use areas for prams and wheelchairs. It also has multiple infotainment systems with monitors the areas in front and rear of it, accompanied by several dual USB sockets for charging. The doors of the driver’s cabs are equipped with partition screens that range across the entire door width to prevent infection of the driver.

The company said that both the buses are part of larger orders. Mercedes-Benz will supply 37 eCitaro to Verkehrsbetriebe Hamburg-Holstein GmbH (VHH) of which 20 units have been already delivered and Hamburger Hochbahn AG will receive 34 units of this. The German automaker has also said that these follow-up orders have been made after many of the buses underwent extensive testing related to daily communication in Hamburg.

The company said each public transportation service has also personalised these electric vehicles to make them stand out from the crowd. It also added that both of the companies have joined hands with Mercedes-Benz to focus on green and innovative technology for mobility.

Driven by pandemic shutdowns and rising prices, the age of cars and light trucks rose from 11.9 years in January 2020, analytics firm IHS Markit said Monday. As owners keep their vehicles longer, more old cars will need maintenance and eventually need to be replaced.

“There doesn’t seem to be a loser here. New vehicles win. The aftermarket wins,” said Todd Campau, IHS Markit’s associate director of aftermarket solutions. “The older the vehicles are, the more opportunity there is that they are reaching the end of life, which feeds new vehicle buying.”

A global shortage in semiconductors has crimped new-car production. That’s pushing prices higher and sending retail consumers and rental-car companies to the used-vehicle market, driving up prices there as well. Used-car costs surged 30% in May from a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, vehicle owners were taking out longer loans and leases to offset rising new-car costs, prompting them to hold on to the vehicles longer, Campau said. Record sales before the pandemic also led to a wave of cars that have fallen out of warranty.

Those vehicles are in the “sweet spot” for auto-repair shops, he said.

“There’s money to be made across the board, but I would probably say the aftermarket stands to gain the most from the used vehicle fleet,” Campau said.