Volvo has announced it has become the first truck maker in the world to build an electric truck using steel produced totally fossil free.
The Swedish truck maker also revealed that the fossil free steel constructed electric trucks are now being delivered to customers with the company using fossil-free steel from Scandinavian steel maker SSAB.
The start of production follows Volvo’s announcement early this year that it was introducing fossil-free steel into the manufacture of its trucks after making a supply deal with SSAB last year to manufacture steel using new technology employing green hydrogen instead of coking coal.
Production of Volvo’s new heavy-duty electric trucks began in September in September with some of those trucks using the green fossil free steel.
Volvo says it will begin using the fossil free steel it in other parts of the truck, apart from just the truck’s chassis raise as it currently is and says that as green steel availability increases it will find its way into a wider range of components,
Volvo says that about 30 per cent of the materials used in its trucks already come from recycled materials and says that up to 90 per cent of its trucks can be recycled at the end of their life.
“Our journey to net zero emissions includes both making our vehicles fossil free in operation and over time fully replacing the material in our trucks with fossil-free and recycled alternatives,” said senior vice president of product management at Volvo Trucks, Jessica Sandström,.
So far a number of customers including Amazon and major Scandinavian logistics company DFDS have started to receive fossil free Volvo electric trucks.
“At Amazon, we are on the way to make all of our operations net-zero carbon by 2040. We need partners like Volvo to make this transition happen,” said vice president of transportation services Europe at Amazon, Andreas Marschner,
“Any step in the green transition of logistics brings us closer to a carbon free society and we are therefore happy to learn that some of our new electric trucks soon to be delivered are also produced with fossil free steel,” added Niklas Andersson, executive vice president of DFDS Logistics Division.
