Volvo Trucks’ first extra-heavy electric truck hits SA roads
Volvo Trucks South Africa (SA) has started the homologation of its first extra-heavy battery electric truck units.
The goal is to present the first of these vehicles to a local customer, KDG Logistics, within the next two months.
Eric Parry, Volvo Trucks SA sustainable solutions manager, took the Volvo FM 4 × 2 truck-tractor through its paces on a trip from the manufacturer’s dealer in Durban to its facilities in Johannesburg – a 600 km journey – with only one stop to charge the vehicle.
“We aimed to prove that an extra-heavy electric truck like this can drive long distances,” says Parry.
“Even though we didn’t carry any payload, it still gave us a good indication of just what this truck is capable of.
Generally, battery electric trucks are used in regional distribution, operating in and around cities, running from distribution centres to stores, and so forth, but, with proper planning, customers will be able to do so much more.”
Volvo Trucks SA is bringing the Swedish truck maker’s complete extra-heavy electric truck range to the country, which includes the FH, FM and FMX models, in truck- tractor and rigid configurations.
“Locally, there have been a lot of activity and interest around electromobility a lot quicker than we anticipated,” notes Volvo Trucks SA sales director Sally Rutter.
“Irrespective of local challenges when it comes to loadshedding and infrastructure, a lot of customers are looking at setting up their own charging infrastructure to accommodate electromobility and meet their own sustainability goals.”
“These trucks can run meaningful kilometres in a day and, if you have your charging setup optimised, you can extend that range quite comfortably, matching your operations to that setup,” adds Parry.
“Within regional operations, public charging is not really relevant for these types of fleets and having control of their own charging will allow customers to fix their energy costs.”
Comments
Research Reports
Projects
Latest News
Showroom
John Thompson, the leader in energy and environmental solutions through value engineering and innovation, provides the following: design, engineer,...
VISIT SHOWROOM
M and J Mining are leading suppliers of physical support systems as used by the underground mining industry. Our selection of products are not...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
