Volvo delivers its first electric trucks

Volvo Trucks announced it has delivered its first electric trucks to two customers in Sweden as part of a development program to bring the electric vehicles to market.

Last year, the Swedish group announced that it would bring its electric trucks to the road in 2018 and start selling them in 2019.

Over the next few months after the announcement, they unveiled a series of different electric trucks.

In September, the company unveiled an all-electric and autonomous truck without a cab.

Volvo Trucks also launched an all-electric garbage truck with up to 200 km of range.

Finally, they also teased an upcoming new all-electric semi truck.

But the first one to make its way to customers is ‘the Volvo FL Electric’, a 16-tonne truck that can be configured with different battery packs for a capacity between 100 and 300 kWh for a range of up to 300 km (186 miles).

Volvo Trucks announced this week that they delivered FL Electric trucks to “a refuse truck to waste and recycling company Renova, and a distribution truck to the logistics company DB Schenker and partner haulier TGM, operating in Sweden.”

Roger Alm, President of Volvo Trucks, commented on the announcement of the deliveries of the two new electric trucks:

“Our close collaboration with drivers and customers has enabled us to develop, in a short space of time, electrified transport solutions that meet high requirements in terms of performance, driving distances, cargo handling and vehicle use.”

The trucks delivered are referred to as “pre-series production” and Volvo Trucks is expected to use feedback from those customers.

Alm said that they already had an opportunity to drive them:

“The drivers were particularly impressed with the responsive driveline, delivering fast and seamless acceleration, and the low noise level,”

Volvo Trucks said that they will start delivering “a limited number of trucks for the European markets in the second half of 2019” – presumably outside of their test program with customers like Renova and DB Schenker.