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.

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.

With an investment of more than USD30m, the Michelin Group of Clermont-Ferrand, France has started construction of its first ever end-of-life tyre recycling plant in the Antofagasta region of Chile, South America.

Volvo Trucks Corporation says the time is right for a rapid upswing in electrification of heavy road transport vehicles. This outlook is based on the ability of Volvo’s electric trucks to meet a broad variety of transport needs.

Electric truck manufacturer, Volta Trucks has appointed Essa Al-Saleh as chief executive officer of Volta Trucks AB and Volta Trucks Ltd as of  April 12, 2021.

Purpose-designed 16t gvw electric truck manufacturer for distribution services, Volta Trucks, which is headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, has announced it is exploring the possible manufacture of the Volta Zero in Spain as one of several possible sites in Europe.

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.

Bearing specialist, SKF Group of Gothenburg to reduce its use of fossil fuels, is to test a self-driving electric truck together with Stockholm-based technology company, Einride AB, on a public road between the factory and the warehouse in Gothenburg. Einride which builds complete vehicles was the first company in the world to operate an electric self-driving truck on public roads for commercial purposes in 2018.

Concentric AB of Linköping, Sweden has won a supply contract for electro-hydraulic steering (EHS) pumps by an unnamed global US truck builder, which will be used in its new electric refuse truck. These trucks are for deployment across the USA, starting in New York’s municipal sanitation department. Production is to start this year and sales revenues from this new contract are estimated at SEK16m over the next five years.

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

Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg have produced a structural battery claimed to perform ten times better than all previous versions.