Volvo Trucks has won the prestigious industry award for its Volvo FH Electric, making it the first time ever that an electric truck wins the award.
23 Nov 2023 | 5171 Views | By Autocar Professional Bureau
Volvo’s heavy electric truck, the Volvo FH Electric, has been selected as International Truck of the Year 2024. In explaining their decision, the jury praised the electric truck’s performance, seamless acceleration, quietness, and vibration-free behaviour.
“With the introduction of the FH Electric, Volvo Trucks has delivered a state-of-the-art battery ...
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Volvo’s heavy electric truck, the Volvo FH Electric, has been selected as International Truck of the Year 2024. In explaining their decision, the jury praised the electric truck’s performance, seamless acceleration, quietness, and vibration-free behaviour.
“With the introduction of the FH Electric, Volvo Trucks has delivered a state-of-the-art battery electric vehicle range, suitable for a wide array of transport operations. It's proof that the energy transition is gaining strength even in today's challenging business environment,” stated Gianenrico Griffini, Chairman, International Truck of the Year.
Roger Alm, President of Volvo Trucks, accepted the prestigious award last night during the prize ceremony at the Solutrans Transport Exhibition in Lyon, France.
“I am so very proud that our Volvo FH Electric has won this highly respected award. For the first time in history the transport industry has chosen an electric vehicle as Truck of the Year. The Volvo FH Electric represents a new era in trucking and winning this award clearly shows that the shift to zero emission transport is happening here and now,” commented Roger Alm.
“I sincerely want to thank everyone who has contributed to this success. It’s based on great teamwork with passion and dedication among our colleagues within the Volvo Group, and close cooperation with our valued customers, partners and suppliers.”
Winning for the fourth time
This is the fourth time that Volvo’s iconic FH model has been named Truck of the Year. The Volvo FH is one of the industry's most successful models ever with nearly 1.4 million trucks sold all over the world.
The Volvo FH Electric can operate at a total of 44 tonnes. Production of the Volvo FH Electric started in 2022 in Volvo’s factory in Gothenburg, Sweden, and production in the factory in Ghent, Belgium began in 2023.
Volvo Trucks was the first global manufacturer to start series production of electric trucks already in 2019, and today it has a broad electric line-up with a total of six electric trucks designed to handle a wide variety of transport assignments. According to the company, Volvo Trucks is leading the market for heavy electric trucks in Europe with a market share of 49 percent.
The International Truck of the Year organization was launched in 1977 and is made up of 24 commercial vehicle journalists from major trucking magazines throughout Europe. The annual award is given to the truck introduced in the market in the previous 12 months that has made the most significant contribution to road transport efficiency. Several key criteria are evaluated, including technological innovation, comfort, safety, driveability, energy efficiency, environmental 'footprint', and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).