The race in the direction of reaching clear mobility within the industrial automobile section has seen regular enchancment over time and one in every of them on the forefront is Swedish industrial automobile main Volvo. Globally, with many international locations – together with India – aiming to go carbon impartial, the industrial automobile producer is trying into all potentialities.
In an interplay with Express Mobility, Lars Stenqvist, Executive VP, Volvo Group Trucks Technology & CTO, Volvo says, “In terms of clean mobility, we are firmly committed to the Paris agreement. We believe that we need to decarbonise road transport and infrastructure solutions. That is by 2050, according to the Paris Agreement, but since our vehicles last long, we cannot wait until 2049 to deliver trucks that run on clean fuel. On an average our vehicles operate for more than 10 years, thus the target of 2050 means our internal target is 2040.”
According to him, to attain this, three know-how developments must be in parallel — battery electrical automobiles, gas cell know-how, and the interior combustion engine (ICE). Although most firms are declaring the tip of the ICE-vehicles, Volvo (vans) isn’t doing so. Stenqvist provides, “We see that in certain applications, installing renewable fuels will be the sweet spot.”
From the worldwide perspective, Volvo is on the highway to growing a few of these applied sciences that a couple of years in the past had been deemed to be unattainable for use in industrial automobiles. The CTO shares, “If you go back and read papers from 5-years ago, there were not many people that believed that you could operate a battery-electric heavy truck. And this year, we are going into serial production for European customers with heavy-duty trucks up to 44-tonne. We have taken the technology to a new level, meaning that we have been working on the batteries to get enough energy onboard.”
On the gas cell matter, the highest govt mentioned that there are not any gas cells that match Volvo’s necessities wherever globally. It was in December 2021 that Volvo entered right into a JV with one in every of its long-time rivals, Daimler Trucks, and collectively, they’re growing gas cells. According to the JV, firms will set up and function high-performance public charging networks for battery electrical, heavy-duty long-haul vans and coaches throughout Europe.
While the 2 firms proceed to compete in opposition to one another globally, the collaboration (for gas cell tech) can be a 50:50 three way partnership.
Volvo will start manufacturing the gas cell vans for the European market because it sees excessive demand there and slowly cater to different markets as demand arises, together with India. “There will be production facilities around the world where we see demands, but the first production facility when it comes to fuel cells will be in Europe. And that is the only decision that has been taken so far,” shares Stenqvist.
In reality, when queried about potential of fuel-cell CVs within the Indian market, he says that whereas there are not any rapid plans for fuel-cell automobiles domestically, “the solutions that are being developed in Bangalore are used across the globe and across the product platforms.”
On the opposite hand, he shares that the Volvo-Daimler collaboration doesn’t finish with manufacturing gas cells although, as the 2 are taking a look at establishing charging infrastructure as properly in Europe. He clarifies, “We don’t have any intention to say that we will be the only ones providing (the charging infrastructure), but we are the first movers right now. It is important that we first get this going.”
The Swedish CV main claims that despite the fact that one in every of its tech facilities is predicated in a specific nation, the options labored on can be from a world perspective and never restricted to the native market.
Source: www.financialexpress.com”