Volvo Trucks powers up its electric truck lineup with new enhanced batteries

Volvo Trucks has recently unveiled upgraded batteries for its medium-duty electric trucks. These enhanced batteries provide an increased range of up to 450 kilometres, offering improved performance for its electric truck lineup.

Customers of Volvo Trucks’ FL and FE Electric medium-duty truck range could choose between two and six lithium-ion battery packs, each with a capacity of 50 kWh.

The company then increased the battery pack capacity to 66 kWh. Volvo Trucks has increased its capacity with new battery packs of approximately 94 kWh.

For the Volvo FL Electric, installing three to six battery packs is now possible, providing a battery capacity ranging from 280 kWh to 565 kWh. The FE Electric offers the option of three or four battery packs, delivering a capacity of 280 kWh to 375 kWh.

Volvo did not detail the methods employed to achieve a 42 percent increase in battery capacity. It simply highlighted that these new batteries facilitate the acceleration of the transition to quieter and cleaner urban transportation.

Reducing need for more batteries

According to Jessica Sandström, Volvo Trucks’ senior vice president of product management, Volvo’s electric trucks can cover distances up to 450 km. She said it makes them suitable for replacing Volvo’s customers’ entire fleet of diesel city trucks.

“Volvo FL and FE Electric produce minimal emissions and noise, which benefits the climate, the driver and everyone that lives and moves about in the city,” Sandström said.

Utilising these higher-capacity batteries reduces the need for more batteries to deliver the same power. This advancement in battery technology brings immediate advantages, particularly for companies that prioritise payload over an extended range. For every battery that is not carried, there is a potential payload increase of 500 kilograms.

Sandström said that prioritising additional payload holds greater significance for certain customers than maximising the electric trucks’ range.

“We work closely with our customers in choosing the best solution,” she said.

Adopting electric trucks powered by clean electricity instead of conventional diesel trucks can result in a significant annual reduction of around 30 tons of CO2 emissions on a typical route for both the Volvo FL and Volvo FE models.

The latest versions of the Volvo FL and FE Electric trucks are currently available for ordering and are expected to be delivered in the autumn of 2023. Since introducing fully electric trucks in 2019, Volvo Trucks has sold nearly 5,000 units across 40 countries worldwide.

The company has set an ambitious goal to have electric trucks account for 50 percent of its global total truck sales by 2030.