Volvo Trucks aims for at least half of all new trucks sold to be battery or fuel cell electric by 2030. One of the companies that is helping to achieve this global goal, by acquiring 20 fully electric trucks, is Amazon.

Just to give you an idea, 36% of Germany’s domestic transportation emissions are associated with heavy goods vehicles and other commercial vehicles. The big actors in the transport business therefore play “a key role in leading the industry’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint”, argues Jessica Sandström.

The Senior Vice President of Product Management at Volvo Trucks also said that she is “glad that Amazon is working with us to reduce their emissions in longer and heavier transport assignments”.

Amazon is expected to cover more than one million road kilometers annually with the 20 Volvo FH Electric that have been shipped to Germany. Still, these are more “environmentally friendly” journeys as the trucks are powered by electricity instead of diesel.

“Amazon is committed to decarbonising its fleet and the middle mile has been a notoriously hard-to-abate sector”, shares Andreas Marschner. That’s why the acquisition of these electric heavy goods vehicles from Volvo became “an important milestone for Amazon”, as it is shared on the press release.

The 20 Volvo FH electric trucks will replace their diesel counterparts and play a key role in the North American technology multinational company’s transport electrification initiatives through its transportation chain. This model has a battery capacity of 540kWh and a continuous output power of 490kW. Regarding range, the Volvo FH electric trucks can reach up to 300km, and during a normal workday, they can reach up to 500km with an intermediate recharge, for example, during lunchtime.

Andreas Marschner, Vice President of Transportation Services Europe at Amazon, states that “we’re operating in one of the fastest-growing commercial transportation electrification programs. With the assurance that ‘we’ll continue to invest and innovate to decarbonize and deliver packages to customers with zero emissions’, he adds.

The range of electric trucks from Volvo Trucks

Volvo Trucks has now a global range of six electric trucks, designed to meet various transport assignments. The models Volvo FH, Volvo FM and Volvo FMX are, however, expected to have the most influence on the success of the brand’s global goal set for 2030, that we have already specified at the beginning of this article.

These three models, produced in series since September 2022, have the capacity to operate with a total weight of 44 tonnes. According to Jessica Sandström, “the series production of these electric heavy-duty trucks arises from the need to meet the increasing demand for decarbonizing goods transports. Available throughout Europe, the Volvo FH, Volvo FM, and Volvo FMX represent about two-thirds of the company’s sales.

The Volvo FL and FE electric models, produced in Europe since 2019, are also part of the Volvo Trucks range. These two specific models are intended for city distribution and refuse handling. In addition to these, there is also the Volvo VNR electric, produced for North America since 2020.