Volvo, Pilot to Construct Public Heavy-Responsibility Truck Charging Community – Gas Smarts

The Volvo Group and Pilot Firm signed a letter of intent to develop a nationwide, public charging community to assist the scaling of Class 8 battery-electric vehicles.

To speed up improvement of the charging community, Pilot intends to put in high-performance charging infrastructure at chosen current community of Pilot and Flying J journey facilities throughout the U.S. The community shall be open to all heavy-duty automobile manufacturers, and can have the ability to assist medium-duty truck charging as properly.

The partnership will deal with charging infrastructure accessibility and roadblocks, together with lengthy venture lead instances and excessive set up prices, that may in any other case delay scaled deployment of battery-electric automobiles, Volvo officers mentioned in a press launch.

“Our VNR Electrical clients, in addition to different fleets seeking to undertake battery-electric vehicles, may have peace of thoughts that they’ll entry a dependable and sturdy, publicly accessible charging community strategically positioned alongside main transportation corridors, enabling them to increase their working radius and decarbonize much more of their routes,” mentioned Peter Voorhoeve, president, Volvo Vehicles North America.

Volvo will assist establish which of the present Pilot and Flying J journey facilities must be prioritized for the charging infrastructure based mostly on present and anticipated battery-electric truck deployment quantity, clients charging wants and patterns, and the supply of federal and state funding to assist capital prices. 

To this point, early adopters of Volvo VNR Electrical and Mack LR Electrical vehicles have utilized depot charging to assist every day routes, the place vehicles return to 1 location to cost. The introduction of public charging infrastructure that may accommodate medium- and heavy-duty fleets goes hand-in-hand with current bipartisan assist of the aim to extend BEV charging capabilities and cut back the carbon footprint of the transportation business, Volvo officers mentioned.