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Volvo To Build Truck Plant in Mexico
GLOBAL REPORT
Chris Fisher In April 2024, Volvo announced that it will build a heavy-duty truck manufacturing plant in Mexico to supplement the Group’s U.S. production. The plant will provide additional capacity to support the growth plans of Volvo Trucks and Mack Trucks in the U.S. and Canadian markets, and support Mack truck sales in Mexico and Latin America. The plant is expected to be operational in 2026.
The new plant will be approximately 1.7 million square feet in size, and will focus on production of heavy-duty conventional vehicles for the Volvo and Mack brands. It will be a complete conventional vehicle assembly facility including cab body-in-white production and paint. At the time of this writing, Volvo has not announced the location of the new production facility.
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CATL, Yutong Launch Long-life EV Battery
CATL has launched a battery pack with Yutong Bus Co to power commercial vehicles like buses and trucks. Yutong said the new battery packs will be used in upcoming electric vehicles and that the new long-lasting EV battery has zero degradation through the first 1,000 cycles.
The new EV battery pack, made with CATL, has a 932,000 mile (1.5 million km), 15-year warranty. Yutong calls the long-life battery an industry first. The bus manufacturer introduced another battery with a 10-year and 621,000 mile (1 million km) lifespan.
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Volvo To Begin Testing Heavy EV Trucks
Volvo has received authorization from the Ministry of Transportation to begin testing its heavy electric trucks in Brazil. The vehicles will be part of a study and will be able to operate in urban areas, metropolitan regions, and short to medium-distance intercity transportation, aiming to evaluate their performance and impact on pavement in this type of operation.
The transport companies ReiterLog and Ritmo Logística will be the first to operate the Volvo electric trucks. Preliminary results from the study, led by Senatran (National Traffic Department), with technical coordination from Inprotran (National Institute of Traffic and Safety Projects), in partnership with Volvo, Prometeon, UNB, and UFRGS, indicate benefits of operating zero-emission CO2 vehicles, such as high energy efficiency, absence of noise, low vibration levels, and increased driver comfort.
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Recharging Slows Electrification of HD Trucks
CHINA REPORT
Jack Hao In 2022, the penetration rate of new energy units in the commercial vehicle market exceeded 10%, and the penetration rate of heavy-duty trucks was close to 5%. The new energy subsidy policy was scheduled to be withdrawn at the end of 2023, but data for the January to October period is basically the same as the previous year. The share of new energy units for the commercial vehicle segment is far lower than the market share of 30.4% for new energy passenger vehicles.
With the accelerated adjustment of China’s transportation structure, it is expected that by 2025, the national railway and water freight volume will increase by 10% and 12%, respectively, compared to 2020, while the road freight volume will relatively decrease. In this context, bulk and ultra long-distance road transportation will gradually exit the market, and the advantages of short and point-to-point road trunk transportation with radii of around 500 kilometers and 300 kilometers will be further highlighted.
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Electrify Where It Makes Sense
NORTH AMERICA REPORT
Chris Fisher Energy and the environment are the issues that will redefine the trucking industry over the next decade. That’s what Chris Spear, president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations, told a room full of industry experts in November at the annual Cummins-Meritor and Pressure Systems International fleet technology event held in San Antonio, Texas.
But he said the timeline the industry has placed on the adoption of battery electric vehicles (BEV) and to achieve zero emissions are “completely unachievable.”
“It takes time. We’re not going to get there starting in 2030. We’re not going to meet that by 2035. It ain’t gonna happen,” Spear said, “and when it fails, it’s not only going to be embarrassing, it’s going to cost a lot of people their jobs. To me, that’s just unacceptable.”
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VW Trucks and Bus To Restart Two Shifts in January
Fabio Ferraresi Volkswagen Trucks and Bus announced that it will return in January from collective vacations to resume production in two full shifts, marking a return to a pre-April status.
Since April, alternating worker groups have managed the production line and remote work, with workers undergoing training courses during off-duty periods. This measure was essential due to a 37.8% decline in truck production and a 35.2% decrease in bus chassis production from January to October.
From January onwards, production will resume at full capacity, assuming positive market expectations.
Source: AutoData Read The Article
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