California Funds Demonstration of Volvo electric trucks next year
California will fund a demonstration project aimed at proving the effectiveness of the trucks in fleet operations and in reducing carbon dioxide emissions, Volvo Trucks announced in a news release this week.
A broader North American commercial rollout is in the works for 2020.
Volvo is working with California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District on the Volvo LIGHTS (Low Impact Green Heavy Transport Solutions) project. There are 16 partners involved in the project working to transform freight operations at the facilities of two United States trucking fleets.
Funding comes from a $44.8 million grant preliminarily awarded by the California Air Resources Board to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The South Coast Air Basin includes all of Orange County and the urban portions of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The district has 10,743 square miles and 16.8 million people, about half the population of the state of California, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District website.
Volvo LIGHTS is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that uses cap-and-trade funds. California conducts quarterly auctions where companies can sell or purchase permits for carbon dioxide emissions as part of the state’s program to reduce greenhouse gases. The proceeds of the cap-and trade auctions are earmarked for public programs to slow climate change.
Volvo Trucks plans to deploy eight Class 8 electric demonstration units with gross vehicle weight of more than 15 tons and another 15 precommercial and commercial units in California’s South Coast Air Basin.
