Commercial vehicle manufacturers, Daimler Trucks AG, Traton Group and Volvo Group have signed a non-binding agreement to install and operate a high-performance public charging network for battery electric heavy-duty long-haul trucks and coaches across Europe.

Following the sale of UD Trucks to Isuzu Motors, the Board of Directors at AB Volvo has proposed the proceeds from the sale be distributed to its shareholders, at SEK9.50 per share.

As previously announced (T&BB March 2021), Volvo Group of Gothenburg, Sweden and Daimler Truck AG of Stuttgart, Germany have now created a new joint venture company designed to accelerate the use of hydrogen-based fuel cells for long-haul trucks and beyond.

Software specialist, BlackBerry Ltd of  Waterloo, Ontario, Canada has been selected by Volvo Group to provide BlackBerry QNX as the foundation software for its main domain controller of electronic control units in more than 300,000 heavy vehicles the company manufactures every year.

A Volvo Group subsidiary, Volvo Autonomous Solutions based in Gothenburg, Sweden, has entered a strategic partnership with start-up software company, Aurora Innovations Inc of Mountain View, California, United States to develop jointly global autonomous transport solutions at scale.

The Volvo Group of Gothenburg, Sweden has completed the previously announced sale of its Japanese truck and bus subsidiary, UD Trucks Ltd of Ageo, Saitama to Isuzu Motors Ltd of Tokyo, Japan for an enterprise value of JPY243bn (approximately SEK19bn / EUR1.86bn) on a cash and debt free basis.

Volvo Group has signed definitive agreements to acquire 60% of Designwerk Technologies AG, an engineering company in Winterthur, Switzerland which develops and sells electromobility products and engineering services.

Daimler Truck and the Volvo Group have completed transactions allowing the formation of their previously announced fuel-cell joint venture.

Volvo Energy, is the name of a new business area within the Volvo Group in Gothenburg, which aims to strengthen the business life cycle of batteries as well as benefitting the customer by using ‘used batteries’ as a way of charging infrastructure.

Daimler Trucks AG, Iveco SpA and the Volvo Group have committed to work alongside Austrian oil company, OMV and Dutch firm, Shell New Energies NL BV under a new EU initiative called H2Accelerate, to help create conditions for mass-market roll-out of hydrogen trucks in Europe.

MobilityXlab is the name of the innovation hub run by the Volvo Group since September 2017 in partnership with five other global mobility companies: CEVT, Ericsson, Veoneer, Volvo Cars and Zenuity, and this year it plans to welcome no fewer than 11 start-up companies to join the innovation accelerator.