USA: Volvo Trucks receives major e-truck order from QCD
Volvo Trucks North America has received its largest electric truck order to date. Customer Quality Custom Distribution (QCD), a national foodservice logistics supplier, will deploy 14 Volvo electric trucks in Southern California over the next two years.
Volvo Trucks will build the all-electric trucks at its New River Valley plant in Virginia. The company says QCD’s order represents the largest single purchasing commitment of Volvo VNR Electric trucks to date.
That is not surprising, given that Volvo Trucks only launched the VNR Electric on the continent last winter. Still, the company claims to have orders for more than 100 VNR Electric models, including the latest order.
The Class 8 battery-electric truck runs on 264-kWh lithium-ion batteries, which charge up to 80% within 70 minutes. Volvo set the operating range at up to 240 km. The top speed is 65 miles per hour.
In the case of QCD, the order comes through funding by a $3.9 million grant awarded to Volvo Financial Services (VFS) from the Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee’s (MSRC) Inland Port Program. Combined with MSRC grant funds, the VFS leases will reduce QCD’s total cost of operating the electric vehicles, making the trucks cost-competitive with existing diesel technology, Volvo Trucks says. The MSRC is a committee of California’s largest transportation and clean air agencies and stakeholders.
QCD recently took delivery of its first Volvo VNR Electric through the Volvo LIGHTS project. With this additional order, QCD’s total fleet of VNR Electric trucks will reach 15 by the end of 2022. QCD, a Golden State Foods (GSF) company, provides custom distribution services to thousands of restaurants in America and currently operates 700 Class 8 tractors; more than half are Volvo models.
“The experience gained from this program will help accelerate battery-electric truck adoption in QCD’s fleet, as well as other last-mile delivery fleets,” said Mike Douglas, senior director of strategic procurement, QCD.
Volvo Trucks will begin delivering the VNR electric trucks to QCD this autumn to operate out of its distribution centre in Fontana, California.
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