Subject to regulatory approval, the joint venture will be launched in 2024, with both partners pledging to invest EUR300m each over the next three years.

The first project, beginning this year, will take place at a mine in Garpenberg, Sweden.

Volvo says it will begin receiving steel products from the mill in mid-2026, though H2 Green Steel has stated that customer deliveries will start in 2027.

There are now seven autonomous FH trucks operating at the site, managed remotely via a touch screen in the wheel loader. 

Over the past decade, Svanberg has overseen the development of battery electric vehicles, covering every segment under the group’s various truck and bus brands.

The joint venture, which will make use of Westport assets and intellectual property, will receive an initial USD28m investment from Volvo, giving it a 45% stake.

Backman will replace the incumbent CFO, Jan Ytterberg, in the second half of this year.

From the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, Volvo will test autonomous trucks on freight corridors to El Paso and to Houston.

The decision was reportedly motivated by the weak profitability of the Plattsburgh, New York operations over several years.

The European programme has partly been funded by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership (EUR 30 million for 150 hydrogen fuel cell trucks) and the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for the 8 hydrogen refuelling stations across France and the Netherlands.

He replaces Martin Weissburg, who steps down from the group board to join the board of another Volvo subsidiary, Nova Bus.

Volvo hopes that advances in this new area of digital innovation will make financial and insurance products “more dynamic and easier to access”.