SA’s first electric extra heavy trucks hit the road
Volvo Trucks South Africa has officially launched its electric truck range. The company is offering its most popular extra heavy trucks in its electric line-up: the Volvo FH, the Volvo FM, and the Volvo FMX.
“Volvo Trucks has been committed to social, environmental, and economic responsibility since the start of our company,” said Waldemar Christensen, managing director of Volvo Trucks South Africa.
“Now, protecting the environment is the biggest challenge we face. The Volvo Group is a leading force in the shift towards the electrification of the transportation, mobility, and equipment sectors, making a real impact on our customers’ efforts to reduce their carbon footprint.”
While the environment is safeguarded through the purchase of electric trucks, they also stack up in terms of what is needed in nearly any fleet. The electric line-up in South Africa will be available in truck tractor or rigid configurations, from 4×2 to 8×4, giving it the industry’s most extensive portfolio of zero exhaust emission trucks.
Eric Parry, Volvo Trucks SA’s sustainable solutions manager, said the trucks have been designed, developed and built to handle commercial operation demands of South Africa.
“Our trucks are designed to handle high-temperature ranges and a variety of operational conditions. With a driveline that has 490kW or power and 2400Nm of torque, it will not struggle on the hills,” explained Parry.
“One of the main advantages of going electric is that it provides drivers with a silent and vibration-free ride while delivering power.”
The power of up to 490 kW/665 hp is handled by a unique traction control system also developed to master slippery surfaces.
Different drive modes are available to set the desired performance, comfort and energy usage levels.
When fitted with six battery packs, depending on the application, it has 378kWh of energy, ensuring sufficient range for most regional haul assignments.
The electric driveline also makes manoeuvring in tight and challenging spots easy and controllable. The Volvo electric trucks are just as flexible as their diesel equivalents and can be built for virtually any task. And the absence of noise and emissions makes them perfect for night-time assignments.
Volvo’s electric trucks also meet the same high crash safety standards.
A Volvo electric truck will need to be serviced only once a year, so fleet downtime will be kept to a minimum. The company has also installed 120kW DC fast chargers at each of its main dealerships, primarily as a workshop tool, but also to support demo vehicles.
The batteries and the overall condition of the trucks are monitored to allow any measures that need to be taken during the next service visit to be identified in good time.
The Volvo electric truck’ range is up to 300 km, enough for most city and regional applications. However, the trucks can cover up to 500 km during a normal workday if a top-up charge is added, for example during the lunch break.
Volvo’s electric trucks can be charged with an AC charger (for example a charging box) at up to 43 kW and with a DC system (stationary charging station) with a capacity of up to 250 kW. Using a 43kW AC charger, it takes around nine hours to fully charge the batteries. With a 250kW DC charger, the charging time is reduced to approximately two hours. The battery can be charged more quickly up to 80% capacity, in just the same way as a smartphone, because the charger slows down towards the end of the process to protect the battery cells.
The electric trucks use lithium-ion batteries produced at the Volvo battery assembly plant in Ghent, Belgium. The extra heavy electric trucks will initially be offered with five or six battery packs. Each battery pack has a total energy of 90 kWh, which means either 450 kWh or 540 kWh of total energy. Each battery weighs approximately 500 kg.
Currently the electric trucks are mostly aimed at regional distribution customers. In most of those cases, they return to a home base at some point in the day. This is usually the point where charging will take place. Public charging is not as relevant for these operations right now. Having control of their own charging allows customers to fix their costs of energy, on top of having exact fleet management.
