Heavy electric truck deliveries to local customers will begin in May, according to Volvo Trucks South Africa.
These trucks belong to the extremely heavy commercial vehicle sector in South Africa, which includes vehicles with GVMs greater than 16.5 t.
Nonetheless, the majority of trucks sold in Nigeria have diesel engines since consumers cannot obtain power to charge the vehicles.
Although the price or the road have never been the main concerns for potential owners of electric vehicles, in Nigeria the issue has always been where to charge them given the amount of electricity required to keep the vehicle running and the lack of charging stations.
Waldemar Christensen, managing director of Volvo Trucks South Africa, said: “Although we are in the early stages of our electric truck journey here in South Africa, our staff and dealers are carefully trained and prepared for this new technology, enabling us to efficiently support our customers as more and more fleets move to sustainable transport solutions.”
“There are of course some infrastructural and legislative obstacles to overcome, but, together with our customers and other stakeholders, we are working hard to ensure the success and longevity of heavy electric trucks in South Africa.”
Since the start of 2019 when production of these vehicles began, Volvo Trucks has sold more than 4,300 electric trucks globally in more than 38 countries.
With a 32% market share for big electric trucks, the Swedish firm is the industry leader in Europe.
Last year, there were 1,041 big electric trucks on the European market, a 200 percent increase. Volvo vehicles made up about half of the big electric trucks in North America that were registered last year.
“We are determined to lead the electric truck transformation and our market leading position in 2022, not only in Europe, but also in North America and other markets, is proof that we are doing just that,” says Volvo Trucks president, Roger Alm.
“Although the market for electric trucks is still small, the trend is clear – many of our customers are now starting their shift to electric.”
“We intend to be the catalyst for this transition and aim for 50 per cent of our global sales of new trucks to be electric in 2030.”
Six electric product lines are currently available in serial production from Volvo Trucks, serving a range of purposes.
“We now have a product portfolio that can cover most types of transportation for all kinds of customers,” says Alm.
“Looking at the goods flow patterns, it’s possible to electrify nearly half of all transports with our line-up of electric trucks.”
