A multi-year project that brought together a range of entities to design and implement innovative programs to successfully introduce zero-emission heavy-duty battery-electric trucks and equipment into the market at scale wrapped this week, bringing widespread adoption of commercial electric vehicles closer to reality for fleets across the U.S.
The Volvo LIGHTS project, which launched in 2019 in Southern California, has mapped out a blueprint for the robust support ecosystem necessary to deploy these vehicles as fleets and the companies they serve strive for greener operations.
The project culminated in an Aug. 23 event in Ontario, California, that featured off-site tours of BEV fleet projects from the vehicles themselves to warehouse equipment, charging infrastructure, energy storage, fleet maintenance facilities and more; speaker panels spotlighting lessons learned related to BEV technology, route optimization, charging infrastructure, total cost of ownership, job training, sales and service support and more; and a display of Volvo VNR Electric trucks from project participants.
During the three-year project, which ran in California’s South Coast Air Basin, Volvo Trucks deployed its first Class 8 pilot Volvo VNR Electric trucks to fleet operators to collect real-world operating data and customer feedback ahead of announcing its commercial model in December 2020. Also during that time, Volvo Group North America collaborated with 14 public and private partners to develop programs and best practices that would help lay the foundation for the successful commercialization of battery-electric freight trucks.
“By working closely with an extraordinary group of public and private partners through the Volvo LIGHTS project, we were able to validate key processes around Class 8 battery-electric truck adoption for commercial transport segments and identify challenges that needed to be addressed for widespread market introduction,” said Volvo Trucks North America President Peter Voorhoeve.
Those processes included identifying ideal routes for electrification, creating comprehensive dealer support, developing reliable and cost-effective charging infrastructure and building technician and first-responder training programs, among other things.
To identify routes, Volvo Trucks deployed 30 Volvo VNR Electric trucks to 11 fleets to operate across their daily Southern California routes to assess factors that may impact vehicle range, including topography, ambient temperature, traffic patterns, driving styles and more. This led Volvo Trucks to introduce its route planning tool, Electric Performance Generator, which enables fleet managers to simulate real-world routes for their VNR Electric trucks.
