Volvo Trucks has delivered an electric truck with a gross combination weight of 74 tonnes.

The company says more and more operators are starting to invest in electric trucks for heavy transport. Mattson Åkeri in Gothenburg, Sweden, is one of them and the company has now bought three heavy electric Volvo FH trucks from Volvo.

For the past few weeks, testing has been ongoing on one of the trucks in container traffic in the port area of Arendal in Gothenburg. The test is a so-called HCT (High-Capacity Transport) project. The truck with two trailers is 32m long and can handle a gross combination weight of 74 tonnes.

Lena Larsson, Project Manager of the HCT project within Volvo's technology organisation said, “We want to show that all-electric solutions also work in applications with high total weights and a high utilisation rate. Together with Mattson Åkeri, the Swedish Transport Administration and several other partners, we are now looking at how we can optimise the operation of the electric truck, including how charging should take place in the most efficient way.”

The truck being tested is a Volvo FH Electric 6X4 and is charged with green electricity at the two fast 180 kW chargers that Mattsson Åkeri has installed in the company's depot in Arendal. In the long term, the truck will also run between Gothenburg and the city of Borås, 70 km from Gothenburg.

Photo: The truck with two trailers is 32m long and can handle a gross combination weight of 74 tonnes.