Martin Brower orders more Volvo electric trucks for MacDonald’s in Canada
The new battery-electric vehicles follow on from a trial of the electric tractor deployed in 2022. The trial assessed the heavy-duty battery-electric vehicle’s ability to handle routine routes and large product loads from Martin Brower’s Baie d’Urfé distribution centre to support deliveries to McDonald’s restaurants in the Montreal area.
During the Montreal trial, the Canadian supply chain solutions provider worked with Vision Truck Group, a local Volvo Trucks Certified Electric Vehicle Dealer, to identify the ideal truck configuration. Vision Truck Group utilised the Electric Performance Generator (EPG) tool to identify the ideal Volvo VNR Electric configurations over specific routes, including traffic patterns and environmental factors, such as terrain and ambient temperature.
Now, McDonald’s Canada and Martin Brower have collaborated to deploy ten more Volvo VNR Electric vehicles. Seven of these will operate in the greater Toronto area, to be serviced by Vision Truck Group. The remaining three Volvo electric trucks will be put into operation at the Montreal distribution centre in Baie-D’Urfé for operation in greater Montreal. These are to be serviced by Camions Volvo Montreal, which assisted Martin Brower with its first 6×4 configuration Volvo VNR Electric tractor during the initial trial.
This isn’t the first corporation to use Volvo electric trucks in Canada. Just over a year ago, VTNA launched an electric truck fleet with Coke Canada bottling.
Matthew Blackman, managing director for Canada, Volvo Trucks North America. “It’s a testament to the performance and reliability of the Volvo VNR Electric that these global leaders are choosing to scale their trial of battery-electric vehicles where feasible.”
But the truck maker from Sweden is hoping to enable the switch to electric trucks for businesses of all sizes. Earlier this month, Volvo Trucks North America and Volvo Financial Services started a Truck-as-a-Service (TaaS) business model called Volvo on Demand. This should also enable smaller and medium-sized truck operators to minimize the upfront investment associated with transitioning to battery-electric trucks and free up credit lines that can be used towards business growth,” stated the North American arm of the Chinese-backed European truck maker at the time.
In November last year, Volvo Trucks revealed it has sold nearly 5,000 electric trucks in around 40 countries since launching its first electric truck in 2019 – mainly in Europe and North America, but also in countries such as Australia and Morocco. The sales figures mark a global sales increase of 141 per cent. The company has also launched electric truck sales to customers in South Africa, South Korea, India and markets in Latin America.
While other legacy automotive companies have dallied to get electric trucks to markets around the world, Volvo Trucks has benefited from its early mover status. The Swedish truck maker not only first announced the sale of electric trucks in North America in 2018 but also promptly followed through with a portfolio of electric trucks for all business sizes, including construction and municipal applications. The company vowed to electrify its entire lineup by 2021. The truck maker is also working on hydrogen fuel cell variants that it says should be available in the second half of this decade.
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