Global manufacturer Volvo Trucks introduced four new truck models to the global commercial vehicle market, including Europe, Asia and South America. The trucks will aim to serve the growing need for driver recruitment by focusing on driver comfort. The truck manufacturer reiterated continued support of safety and sustainability initiatives as well.
"The drivers will get a lot with this new product range," said Volvo Trucks President Roger Alm. "We have improved the comfort, the ergonomics, the visibility, lower noise level, and improved safety. We will have a completely new driver experience, and we will set the new standard In our industry."
"This [represents] 70 percent of our total sales globally," Alm said of the new product launches. "This is very important for us. This is the largest launch that we are doing here ever at Volvo Trucks."
The launch includes the release of four heavy duty trucks - the FH, FH16, FM, and FMX. These products represent two-thirds of Volvo Trucks' global product deliveries.
New range of features
"With all the smart innovations and features that we've bundled together, we have a much better safe trucks," said Helene Mellquist, senior vice president, Volvo Trucks Europe. "We also have a driver environment that is exceptional. On top of that, with the fuel efficiency we also make a great contribution to sustainability."
The major focus for this new line has been providing driver comfort and safety. An example of new features includes:
- Updated dashboard with a 12" screen main display, and an optional 9" side screen display.
- Adjustable tilting steering wheel providing optimal positioning for any driver height.
- Increased interior volume creates a larger cab area and more storage space, better comfort, and more working room.
- Better driver visibility with larger window design, lowered door line, and new mirrors.
- A passenger corner camera located at the bottom of the passenger side mirror providing a full viewing area along the passenger side of the truck.
- Better sound insulation, lowering noise levels up to 2 decibels (FM and FMX models).
- Adaptive headlight high beam functionality to improve nighttime visibility (FH and FH16 models).
- Downhill cruise control to prevent unwanted acceleration when driving down hills.
- Adaptive cruise control to a stop, which allows the truck to maintain a safe distance and speed between itself and other vehicles.
As sustainability continues to be a major focus for the truck manufacturer, Volvo Trucks focused on making improvements on the traditional internal combustion engine to further improve fuel efficiency and address emissions concerns.
"It's very versatile, it's highly efficient, it can be used for many different types of fuel such as biofuel," said Jessica Sandstrom, senior vice president, global project management at Volvo Trucks, regarding internal combustion engines. "We always aim to be leaders in fuel economy, and that means that we will continue to develop our combustion engines going forward."
In particular, the OE has focused on natural gas and diesel biofuel options as alternatives to traditional diesel fuel.
In many markets, the Volvo FH and Volvo FM are available with the Euro 6 compliant gas-powered liquid natural gas LNG engine. This option allows for fueling options of biogas or natural gas - both of which help to reduce CO2 emissions compared to Volvo’s equivalent diesel trucks.
Volvo Trucks has also designed this new truck series to allow for compatibility and development into full electric trucks in the future. Application will help to determine which powertrain design would be most suitable for each customer.
Other new services
The truck manufacturer discussed new products and services aimed at improving and assessing total cost of ownership. Introduced last year, Volvo offers the I-SAVE fuel consumption (calculator), which Alm confirmed has helped fleets limit fuel consumption by 7 percent or more.
When it comes to vehicle leasing, the Flexi Gold Service Contract provides flexible leasing options for fleets based on vehicle usage. (usage based service contract).
Volvo Connect provides real-time remote monitoring of vehicle systems and components and the ability to manage software updates at the customer's convenience.
"Real-time monitoring keeps a watchful eye on uptime critical components," said Hillevi Pihlblad Rafidashti, commercial services manager for Volvo Trucks. "Using artificial intelligence, machine learning, and algorithms to analyze data, we can predict potential issues much more accurately and frequently than we could before."
As it relates to service and vehicle uptime, Volvo Trucks will offer oil drain intervals extended by up to 50 percent, said Rafidashti. The oil changes can be optimally scheduled with other planned service for the trucks.
Additionally, improvements have been made to connected body services offering a real-time view of vehicle body and equipment status on the vehicle's in-cab display. This provides drivers with the real time status of the the body or equipment in the in the side display.
"We have a new more advanced body builder module that can decrease the need for body builders to install their own hardwired switches and additional wiring between the cab and the chassis," Rafidashti added.
Volvo Trucks looks to continue innovations globally, that will allow the company to address customer needs in the future. This means a continued investment in research and development of new technologies.
"We are increasing our spending and investments in terms of R&D to keep up our leading position in the industry, and also then be part of the transformation that we are in," Alm said.
Working from a global platform, a variety of technologies first introduced to the European market through Volvo Trucks do eventually make their way into the Volvo Trucks North America (VTNA) product lines, which serve the U.S. and Canadian markets. Examples of these technologies include the recently enhanced Turbo Compound engine for North America, introduced in Europe under the name I-Save. Additionally, the Volvo Dynamic Steering (VDS) product first launched through VTNA in September of 2019 was originally available for European Volvo Trucks in 2013. Another recent example, the integrated driveline used in the VNR Electric model introduced during the Volvo LIGHTS announcement last month uses the same integrated driveline as the European Volvo FL and Volvo FE product range.
