By Timothy Cama, Staff Reporter
This story appears in the March 19 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
WASHINGTON — The leader of Sweden-based Volvo AB said the largest challenges in broader adoption and further development of alternative-fuel vehicles are the maturity of the technology and fueling infrastructure.
Olof Persson, who took over as Volvo’s CEO in September, also presented the company’s recent efforts toward developing more fuel-efficient vehicles with lower emissions, focusing on Volvo’s operations in the United States.
“We have the technology to run these trucks on seven different fuels,” Persson said at a seminar on sustainable transportation at the Swedish Embassy on March 7. “So it’s very much now about taking that technology and maturing it further.”
Research and development into alternative fuels has taken great strides in recent years, Persson said, while government and industry are much more prone to look at the challenges ahead than to recognize progress.
“Actually, if you look at it, it has gone very fast,” he said. “Humanity has a tendency to forget about . . . the history, and always looking toward the future as an impossibility.”
Fueling infrastructure is severely underdeveloped for alternative fuels, and widespread adoption will remain difficult until it is developed further, Persson said.
Persson told industry and government leaders at the seminar that Volvo’s recent progress on sustainability in the United States has included improving its manufacturing processes, developing new high-risk truck technology and helping solve local problems around the country.
Volvo produces trucks in North America through its Volvo Trucks North America and Mack Trucks Inc. subsidiaries.
“We are very proud to say that in our New River Valley factory we have succeeded to become extremely energy efficient when it comes to reducing our emissions and also the number of units of gas we’re using,” Persson said. The plant reached its 10-year goal for efficiency and emissions in less than two years, he said.
Volvo is participating in Super-Truck, the Department of Energy’s program to improve truck efficiency. DOE, Sweden’s government and Volvo are splitting the costs of the research and development, he said.
“We’re looking at low-resistance tires, we’re looking at aerodynamics, we’re looking at all the things that actually contribute to a fuel-efficient vehicle,” he said.
The company is taking steps to reduce emissions around the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., including providing fuel-efficient trucks to use in the ports, helping local governments install intelligent traffic systems and developing plug-in hybrid trucks. The Class 8 hybrid trucks are in a demonstration phase, Persson said.
“We truly believe in high technology with innovation,” he said. “That is our core, that’s how we’re going to drive the different things together.
