On Thursday, Volvo became the first manufacturer to offer a fully-electric heavy-duty truck. Richard Milne reports for Financial Times:
Volvo Group is set to become the first manufacturer to offer a fully-electric heavy-duty truck for sale as the Swedish group aims to show battery power is possible for the biggest commercial vehicles.
The world’s second-largest truckmaker announced on Thursday that electric heavy-duty trucks with a range of up to 300km would go on sale next year and enter production in 2022 as Volvo pushes for half its truck sales in Europe to be battery powered by the end of the decade.
“It’s important to go from nice statements to real action — this is one really big step in this direction,” Jessica Sandstrom, head of product and vehicle sales at Volvo Trucks, told the Financial Times.
Volvo first started with electrification with a hybrid bus in 2008 and last year started production of electric medium-duty trucks up to 26 tonnes in weight, used mostly in city deliveries and refuse collection.
It is now pushing into electric versions of all types of its heavy-duty trucks, which are up to 44 tonnes, and already has the first two construction battery-powered vehicles — a concrete mixer and a hooklift truck — in testing with Swedish building supplier Swerock.
Much of the focus on cutting emissions in transport has centred on passenger cars, but truck manufacturers are upping their game, too. Volvo is aiming for all its trucks to be fossil-free by 2040.
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