The new trucks are electric versions of Volvo’s FH, FM and FMX trucks, used for regional transportation and urban construction. Since they’re designed to do relatively short runs between concrete plants and city construction sites, for instance, the relatively short range wouldn’t be an issue. Volvo Trucks president Roger Alm told the Financial Times that the company was shooting for operational costs — including fuel, financing and second hand value — “as comparable as possible” to diesel trucks.
Volvo
At the same time, the company plans to gradually introduce heavy long-haul trucks “in this decade,” with a mix of battery-electric and hydrogen-powered fuel cell models. The latter will arrive in the second half of 2020, and Volvo plans to have its entire product range fossil-free by 2040.
Tesla’s heavy-duty Semi should still arrive ahead of the Volvo’s electric trucks, as it’s now schedule to ship in 2021 after production was pushed back from 2019. However, the Semi is designed more for long/short haul duties, not construction, with a longer range of 300 or 500 miles, depending on the configuration. We’ve also seen electric semi-trucks from Mercedes, Nikola, Cummings and Volvo’s Swedish rival, Volta.