Volvo announces that it will put electric trucks on the road this year

Tesla has woken up the industry

This week, Volvo is adding itself to the list of many truck manufacturers working on electric trucks.

The Swedish group says that it will bring the electric trucks to the road as soon as this year and start selling them next year.

Claes Nilsson, President Volvo Trucks, commented on the announcement:

“Electromobility is fully in line with Volvo Truck’s long term commitment for sustainable urban development and zero emissions. We belive in full electrification for urban distribution as a first step. However we are working with electrification for other transport applications. This is only the beginning."

They will be starting with “medium-duty trucks in Europe."

Jonas Odermalm, Head of product strategy medium-duty vehicles at Volvo Trucks, commented:

“Our technology and knowhow within electromobility are based on proven commercial solutions already in use on Volvo’s electric buses, and solutions that were introduced in Volvo’s hybrid trucks as far back as 2010. The vehicles themselves are only one part of what is needed for large-scale electrification to succeed."

The company says that “a few selected reference customers" will get the new trucks by the end of the year before the electric trucks go for sales next year.

Odermalm added:

“We are working closely with customers, cities, suppliers of charging infrastructure and other key stakeholders to create the necessary framework for electrical trucks."

The focus on electric trucks has so far been on semis, like Tesla Semi, Daimler’s heavy-duty all-electric truck concept, and Cummins’ electric truck effort, but there are also some medium-size truck programs to compete with Volvo.

For example, Daimler already started delivering all-electric trucks in Europe. VW is also investing $1.7 billion to bring electric trucks to market in Europe.