Volvo Vehicles North The usa shoppers NFI Industries and High quality Customized Distribution (QCD) are each expanding their investments in electromobility answers with their newest orders of a complete of 90 Volvo VNR Electrical vans. The battery-electric freight vans will likely be deployed in NFI’s Ontario, California, fleet and QCD’s Southern California fleet operations all over 2022 and 2023.
“Volvo Vehicles is proud to proceed partnering with NFI on its electromobility adventure as the corporate in reality demonstrates its management and dedication to provide chain sustainability,” mentioned Peter Voorhoeve, president, Volvo Vehicles North The usa. “It’s thrilling to peer QCD keep growing its Volvo VNR Electrical fleet in order that the corporate can carrier one of the crucial country’s maximum iconic eating places with zero-tailpipe emission vans.”
NFI began its electromobility adventure with Volvo Vehicles as a part of the Volvo LIGHTS (Low Affect Inexperienced Heavy Shipping Answers) mission that started in 2019. NFI began piloting two Volvo VNR Electrical vans in its industrial operations, demonstrating the power for battery-electric vans to reliably shipping items beneath numerous running prerequisites.
“Our revel in with the Volvo LIGHTS mission used to be a significant factor in NFI’s choice to buy VNR Electrical vans for our drayage operations,” mentioned Invoice Bliem, senior vice chairman of fleet products and services at NFI. “NFI began our electrification transition as a result of we’re dedicated to sustainability tasks throughout our operations, and we’re proceeding to put money into Volvo Vehicles on account of the confirmed viability and luck now we have had running the Volvo VNR Electrics in our real-world routes.”
Each and every yr, QCD’s fleet of 700 Elegance 8 tractors makes multiple million last-mile deliveries from its 26 distribution facilities around the U.S., averaging greater than 35 million miles at the street yearly. The corporate’s funding in Volvo VNR Electrical, which now contains 45 vans, is a central a part of its approach to lend a hand its shoppers scale back their provide chain emissions.
“QCD has received improbable firsthand perception into the real-world efficiency of battery-electric vans throughout the previous yr whilst running a Volvo VNR Electrical truck as a part of the Volvo LIGHTS mission,” mentioned Shane Blanchette, senior director of operations, QCD. “We’ve got the revel in had to map out the perfect routes to combine further battery-electric vans, and we’ll use this information as we deploy the extra 44 Volvo VNR Electrics from our distribution facilities in Fontana and Los angeles Puente, California.”
The 60 vans ordered via NFI are the following era enhanced Volvo VNR Electrical fashion with a six-battery-pack configuration, which supplies an operational vary of as much as 275 miles. Twenty of the vans will likely be deployed as a part of the Joint Electrical Truck Scaling Initiative, or JETSI mission; 30 will likely be deployed with investment improve from California’s Hybrid and 0-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Venture (HVIP); and the final 10 are a part of the SWITCH-ON mission, a grant to Volvo Vehicles to deploy battery-electric vans in Southern California for regional freight distribution and drayage.
With the deployment of the 30 further Volvo VNR Electrics, QCD is increasing its zero-tailpipe emission fleet to perform from a 2d distribution middle in Los angeles Puente, California. QCD gained investment for the 30 Volvo VNR Electrics during the Southern California Affiliation of Governments’ (SCAG) Closing Mile Freight Program, established in partnership with MSRC.
The infrastructure to improve NFI’s 0‐emission fleet is being evolved via Electrify The usa as a part of the announcement made with NFI at ACT Expo 2021 to construct the country’s biggest heavy-duty electrical truck charging infrastructure mission. The mission will supply 19 350 kW ultra-fast chargers with 38 dispensers to improve NFI’s rising battery-electric drayage fleet that serves the Ports of Los Angeles and Lengthy Seaside.
To additional bolster the environmental and financial advantages of the mission, in addition to building up resiliency, QCD has partnered with Scale Microgrid Answers to construct a first-of-its-kind blank power microgrid to energy its Los angeles Puente’s battery-electric fleet and distribution middle. InCharge Power will provide and handle instant charging stations using onsite renewable power generated via a microgrid evolved via Scale Microgrid Answers to improve QCD’s rising Volvo VNR Electrical fleet.
Voorhoeve additionally mentioned the corporate’s Volvo Autonomous Solutions, spotlighting the development that has been made thru its partnership with Aurora to collectively increase on-highway self sufficient vans within the U.S. The Volvo Vehicles sales space showcased a Volvo Self sufficient Answers VNL 760 with an built-in Aurora Motive force for long run hub-to-hub operations, representing the most important step in opposition to launching totally self sufficient Elegance 8 vans commercially in North The usa.
Volvo Vehicles additionally introduced the discharge of Volvo LIGHTS Lessons Learned Guidebook. The Volvo LIGHTS mission companions mission performed an integral position in serving to to change into items motion, as they labored in combination to design a blueprint to introduce zero-tailpipe emission battery-electric vans and kit into the marketplace at scale. Throughout the mission, which ran from 2019 to 2022, the companions demonstrated inventions crucial for the economic luck of battery-electric freight motion, that have been delicate into quite a lot of key insights for the Courses Realized Guidebook.
