From 13 to 16 May 2026, Fiera Milano Rho hosted the 2026 edition of NME, Next Mobility Exhibition, the biennial show organised by Fiera Milano and dedicated to sustainable collective mobility, held alongside Transpotec Logitec. The associations Asstra, Agens and Anav, which together represent around 95% of the sector, confirmed the show's role as the main meeting point for operators, institutions and technology suppliers of Italian public transport.
Electrification: the game is already played on the numbers
2025 marked the breakthrough of battery-electric traction for urban services: 1,230 e-buses were registered in Italy last year, 1,201 of them in Class I, which represents more than 65% of urban registrations out of a total of 1,821 vehicles. The main manufacturers present at NME, including BYD Europe, Irizar e-mobility, Iveco Bus, Karsan and Menarini, confirmed that the energy transition is no longer an isolated experiment but the norm across urban ranges.
For an operator, this acceleration raises an immediate operational question: an electric bus is not managed like a diesel one. Range, charging cycles and actual fleet availability all need to be monitored in real time, so that a capital investment does not turn into gaps in service.
Digitalisation and data as infrastructure
On 13 May, MOST, the National Centre for Sustainable Mobility at Politecnico di Milano, led a discussion on the role of digital technologies in supporting advanced smart mobility models: intelligent infrastructure management, cooperative, connected and automated mobility (CCAM), and MaaS platforms, with particular attention to the use of data for service planning and integration.
This is exactly the ground an AVM such as Pysae's works on: without real-time data on vehicle location, regularity and load, none of these promises (intermodality, resilience, passenger experience) becomes concrete. The show confirmed an underlying trend: data is becoming infrastructure, in the same way as a depot or an overhead power line.
What changes for Italian operators
NME 2026 sent three clear signals to anyone running a public transport network:
- Electrification is moving faster than the operational steering capacity of many networks, which drives a growing need for fleet supervision tools.
- Digital capability is becoming a selection criterion, on a par with vehicle price, especially in regional tenders.
- Real-time data is now a prerequisite for any MaaS or intermodality strategy, not a simple bonus.
The next edition of NME is planned for 2028, but these trends will not wait two years to take hold on the ground. To go further, read our overview of the real-time data standard each European country requires, our analysis of how many telematics boxes a bus actually needs, or our guide on how to choose an AVM system.
Do you run a transport network and want to explore digitalisation or electric fleet management further? The Pysae team can show you how our AVM adapts to your operations.