Thursday, November 21, 2024
NewsVehicle manufacturers

Volvo Trucks launches range of electric trucks

Volvo Trucks is ready to play its part in the electrification of heavy road transport and has started sales of three new heavy-duty all-electric models.

The company says its trucks can meet a broad variety of transport needs and with higher load capacities, more powerful drivelines and range of up to 300km, its electric portfolio could cover almost half of all goods transported in Europe today.*

Large national and international transport buyers are showing strong interest in electric vehicles. According to Volvo, this is being driven by their own ambitious climate goals, as well as consumers demand for decarbonisation and cleaner transports.

Roger Alm (pictured), President of Volvo Trucks, said: “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 our wide and deep offering, it is totally feasible for far more transport companies to go electric.”

With the sales start of the new electric Volvo FH and Volvo 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 in the second half of 2022. They join the Volvo FL Electric and Volvo FE Electric for urban transports that have been in serial production since 2019 for the same market. In North America, sales of the Volvo VNR Electric started in December 2020. With the sales start of the new truck models, Volvo Trucks now has a line-up of six medium and heavy duty electric trucks.

“There is huge potential to electrify truck transports in Europe, and also in other parts of the world, in the very near future,” adds Alm. “To prove this, we have set the ambitious goal to have electric trucks account for 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.”

Looking further ahead, and to meet the 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.”


*According to Eurostat statistics “Road Freight Transport by distance” (2018), 45% of all goods transported on road in Europe travelled a distance of less than 300 km

Image courtesy of Volvo Trucks.

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