Volvo Trucks ready to electrify a large part of goods transports

21/04/2021

With sales starting this year of three new heavy-duty all-electric models, Volvo Trucks believes the time is right for a rapid upswing in electrification of heavy road transport.

This positive outlook is based on Volvo’s electric trucks’ ability to meet a broad variety of transport needs. In the EU for example, almost half of all truck transport can be electrified already.

Large national and international operators are showing strong interest in electric vehicles. This is being driven by their own ambitious climate goals, as well as consumers’ demand for decarbonisation and cleaner transport solutions.

“More and more transport companies are realising they need to start their electrification journey right now, both with the environment in mind and for competitive reasons to satisfy customer requirements for sustainable shipping. With Volvo Trucks’ wide and deep offering, it is totally feasible for far more transport companies to go electric,” says Roger Alm, President of Volvo Trucks.

With sales starting of the new electric Volvo FH and FM models, electrified transport is now possible not only for urban areas but also for regional traffic between cities. In addition, the new electric Volvo FMX model is creating new ways to make construction transport operations both quieter and cleaner.

Production of the new electric models for Europe will start next year. They join the Volvo FL Electric and Volvo FE Electric for urban transport that have been in serial production since 2019 for the same market. In North America, the sale of VNR Electric started in December last year. With the new models, Volvo Trucks currently has a line-up of six medium and heavy-duty electric trucks, which makes it the most complete commercial electric truck range in the industry.

With the addition of the new products with higher load capacities, more powerful drivelines and range of up to 300 km, Volvo Trucks’ electric portfolio can cover around 45% of all goods transported in Europe today*. This makes it possible to offer an important contribution to lower the climate impact from road freight, which according to official statistics account for about 6% of total CO2 emissions in the EU.

“There is huge potential to electrify truck transports in Europe, and also in other parts of the world, in the very near future,” says Alm. “To prove this, we have set the ambitious goal to have electric trucks account for at least half of our sales in Europe by 2030. And these three new heavy-duty trucks we are now launching mark a giant step towards reaching this target.”

In addition to the electric vehicles, Volvo Trucks’ electrification programme includes a complete eco-system with numerous service, maintenance and financing solutions, as well as other options that can help facilitate an easier and faster transition to electrified traffic. The holistic setup helps customers stay productive and in control of their new electric transport fleet.

“These complete electrified transport solutions that we, along with our global network of dealers and service workshops can provide, will play a vital role in ensuring our customers’ success,” adds Alm.

Looking further ahead, even long-distance heavy transport will be able to be completed with electric vehicles. To meet these challenging demands for both high load capacity and a much longer range, Volvo Trucks plans to use hydrogen fuel cells to generate the electricity.

“This technology is developing rapidly and our ambition is also to make the long driving distances electrified, using both batteries and fuel cells,” Alm states.

“Our aim is to start selling fuel-cell electric trucks in the second part of this decade and we are confident we can make this happen.”

Technical facts:

Volvo FH, FM and FMX Electric: Range up to 300 km. Continuous power 490 kW. Max torque 2400 Nm. Battery capacity up to 540 kWh. Gross combination weight (GCW) up to 44 tonnes.

Volvo FE Electric: Range up to 200 km. Continuous power 330 kW. Max torque up to 850 Nm. Battery capacity up to 264 kWh. Gross combination weight (GCW) 27 tonnes.

Volvo FL Electric: Range up to 300 km. Continuous power 165 kW. Max torque up to 425 Nm. Battery capacity up to 396 kWh. Gross combination weight (GCW) 16 tonnes.

 

*According to Eurostat statistics “Road Freight Transport by distance”, 45% of all goods transported on road in Europe travelled a distance of less than 300 km.