USA – On 23 August, Volvo Group North America Inc and 13 partners wrapped up a three-year project, called ‘LIGHTS’, at the Ontario Convention Center in Southern California. LIGHTS, which stands for ‘Low Impact Green Heavy Transport Solutions’, brought public and private companies, authorities, and institutions together to draw up and test plans for deploying battery-electric trucks at scale in the state of California. 

The project centred on the first customer pilots of the VNR Electric truck range ahead of the product launch at the end of 2020. Two Californian fleets owned by NFI Industries and Dependable Highway Express took part in the trials. TEC Equipment Fontana, Volvo Trucks’ largest dealership on the West Coast, was trained and equipped to provide maintenance and repair services to the demonstrator fleets. TEC Equipment Fontana subsequently became Volvo’s first EV Certified Dealership in the USA. Starting in 2021, TEC Equipment leased a total of 30 trucks to local fleets, with support from an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean Air Technology Initiative Grant. The trucks have covered a total of over 250,000 miles since the project began.