Volvo Group has announced investment of USD33m during a groundbreaking ceremony by Volvo Trucks North America at one of its main production sites in Hagerstown, Maryland.

Volvo Trucks North America Inc of Greenboro, North Carolina, in announcing the supply of a Volvo VNR Electric to Quality Custom Distribution - the first zero-emission, battery-electric truck to be deployed in QCD’s fleet of more than 700 vehicles – has also announced production of the Class 8 electric truck slated to begin in early 2021 at the company’s New River Valley manufacturing plant in Dublin, Virginia.

Volvo’s Class 8 VNL long haul heavy-duty tractor truck is celebrating over a quarter century of production at the company’s New River Valley plant in Virginia, USA, where it has been assembled since its launch in 1996.

Vanguard Truck Centers LLC, a dealer of Volvo Trucks North America Inc of Greensboro, North Carolina, has invested USD23m in a new facility, which is one of four locations in the Houston, Texas area, in addition to a full-service body shop.

Following a successful four-month pilot programme of Volvo Trucks’ new Driver Display Activation application, Volvo Trucks North America Inc says the programme went into full production on November 30, 2020.

Volvo Trucks North America Inc has been awarded USD21.7m in grants to deploy seventy VNR Electric trucks in Southern California for regional freight distribution and drayage.

Volvo Trucks North America Inc has entered a Memorandum of Understanding with Samsara Inc, a specialist in industrial Internet of Things.

Through the Volvo LIGHTS project, third-party supply chain solutions provider, NFI Industries of Camden, aims to demonstrate the ability for battery-electric trucks to successfully transport freight under a variety of operating conditions.

Christer Johansson, senior vice president, investor relations at the Volvo Group at the NACV Show in Atlanta last month, confirmed what other industry experts were saying about the Class 8 truck market in 2020, that the market to ‘normalise’ at 240,000/250,000 units, down by around 100,000 units from what is expected to be the second highest Class8 truck market ever in 2019 of 340,000 units.