The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has preliminarily awarded $44.8 million to SCAQMD for the Volvo LIGHTS (Low Impact Green Heavy Transport Solutions) project. The Volvo LIGHTS project will involve 16 partners, and transform freight operations at the facilities of two of the United States’ top trucking fleets. Volvo LIGHTS is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy and improving public health and the environment – particularly in disadvantaged communities, says Volvo Trucks.
“This is yet another important step towards our vision zero emissions. We are convinced that electrified truck transport will be a key driver of sustainable transports, and we’re proud to contribute the Volvo Group’s expertise to this innovative public-private partnership,” says Claes Nilsson, president of Volvo Trucks.
The demonstration units will be based on the technology currently being used in the Volvo FE Electric, which Volvo Trucks presented in May and will begin selling in Europe in 2019.
Volvo Trucks says a variety of smart technologies will be used, including remote diagnostics, geofencing, and the company’s web-based service management platform, to monitor all truck performance aspects of the project, and maximize vehicle uptime. Volvo says it will deploy eight multi-configuration battery Class 8 electric demonstration units (GVW +15 tons), and an additional 15 pre-commercial and commercial units. The project also will integrate non-truck battery-electric equipment, non-proprietary chargers, and solar energy production equipment and will reduce an estimated 3.57 tons of criteria pollutants (defined air pollutants) and 3,020 tons of greenhouse gases annually, Volvo says.
“This is an excellent opportunity to show the end-to-end potential of electrification,” says Peter Voorhoeve, president of Volvo Trucks North America. “From solar energy harvesting at our customer locations, to electric vehicle uptime services, to potential second uses for batteries, this project will provide invaluable experience and data for the whole value chain.”
