RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Volvo started selling the FL electric truck in Europe this year and is currently assessing the potential for producing the vehicle in Brazil, the second-largest market for the Swedish brand, after the USA.
On a visit to Brazil to take part in the Freight Road Transport Exhibition (FENATRAN), to be held in São Paulo, the world president of the Volvo Group, Martin Lundstedt, stated that the product will be the same as in Europe, but with local development to meet the specific needs of the Brazilian market.
“We will increase the sales of the electric vehicle (in Europe) in 2020 and we will have local production when we feel it is the right time,” he said. The FL version can hold up to 16 tons of cargo and the FE can hold up to 27 tons for use in product distribution and garbage collection.
Volvo’s semi-heavy vehicles will not dispute the market with Volkswagen Trucks, which will be produced in Resende (RJ) from next year and have a smaller capacity of 13 tons.
Another brand competing in the market, but in the semi-light category, is the JAC iEV1200T, expected to be imported from China in November.
Lundstedt declared he was optimistic about the sales revival in this country, which again placed the Brazilian subsidiary in second position among the brand’s major markets. During the worst moment of the economic crisis, between 2016 and 2017, Brazil was in sixth place.
From January to September, the total truck market grew by 40 percent compared to the same period in 2018, to 74.2 thousand units. Volvo, which operates only in the semi and heavy trucks segments, grew 55 percent to 11,600 units.
The brand’s largest market, the US, had sales of approximately 30,000 trucks.
Autonomous vehicles
Volvo’s other major stake, the autonomous (driver-less) truck, is also progressing in Europe with the start of testing the Vera, a model that has level 4 automation (no steering wheels and no pedals).
The model is in operation at a port in Sweden.
The company has also developed the FH with level 2 autonomy, where some functions are autonomous but the driver remains in the cab. This version is in use in mines in Norway and, according to Lundstedt, “has high potential to be used by the mining industry in Brazil”.
Since 2017, the Brazilian subsidiary has started sales of the self-propelled level 2 VM truck, developed in the country, to operate in sugarcane plantations. Seven units were sold.
Mercedes-Benz has two autonomous models operating in the collection of sugarcane, the Axor (22 units sold), and the Atego, which will be available for a test drive at FENATRAN, to be held between October 14th and 18th.
Source: O Estado de S. Paulo.