Volvo Trucks is currently the world’s largest manufacturer of electric trucks, with the most complete range on the market: six models, from urban distribution to heavy long-distance transport. The heavy-duty model range recently started production in Gothenburg, Sweden, and before the end of the year, Amazon will take delivery of 20 units of the Volvo FH Electric.
These trucks will go to Germany as part of a progressive update of their fleet. Previously, Amazon has already engaged with Rivian, asking for 100,000 vans, and also with Mercedes-Benz, from whom it has ordered thousands of units. The e-commerce giant is also going to be one of the first customers of Volvo FH Electric.
These tractor-trailers have a range of 300 kilometers, but they can do 500 km per day if the trucker’s rest is used to plug it into a high-power recharging point. Between these 20 units they will travel a million kilometers a year, or 50,000 per head… tractor. If they worked for 365 days a year, it would be 137 kilometers per day and truck.
The greater the power, the greater the responsibility. Amazon is a logistics giant that ends up producing a lot of greenhouse gas emissions. They intend to be carbon neutral by 2040, and for this the use of electric vehicles is essential. Next year they will also use Mercedes-Benz eActros LongHaul trucks for the same purpose.
Even the most powerful companies in the world now have a problem if they want to buy electric trucks, production is very limited at the moment. To date, Volvo Trucks has sold 2,600 electric trucks, including 1,000 heavy trucks, modest numbers compared to the diesel trucks produced each year.
For its part, Volvo has the objective that 50% of its sales by 2030 correspond to electric models. From 2023 it will have a greater capacity to make heavy trucks since the factory in Ghent (Belgium) will also make FH, FM, and FMX models. On the other hand, in North America, they have the Volvo VNR, a tractor that does not meet European standards but is included in the local Class 8.
