Volvo Trucks officially opens its first battery assembly plant in Ghent, Belgium

Volvo Trucks officially opened its first battery assembly plant located in Ghent, Belgium. The plant will supply ready-to-use batteries for Volvo’s heavy-duty electric trucks.

President of Volvo Trucks, Roger Alm, said that this investment is a form of Volvo Trucks’ strong commitment to electrification-based truck transportation.

“By 2030, at least 50 percent of all trucks we sell globally will be electric trucks and by 2040, we will be a carbon neutral company,” he said in his official statement, Tuesday (17/5/2022).

At the new battery plant, cells and modules from Samsung SDI will be assembled into a custom battery pack for Volvo’s heavy-duty electric truck range consisting of the Volvo FH, Volvo FM and Volvo FMX. Series production will begin in the third quarter of this year.

Each battery pack will have a capacity of 90 kWh and customers can choose to have up to six battery packs (540 kWh) in the truck. The number of batteries depends on each customer’s specific range and load capacity demands.

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“By integrating the battery assembly process into our production flow, we can shorten lead times for our customers and secure high-performance batteries, while at the same time increasing circularity,” said Roger Alm.

Volvo Trucks batteries are designed to be remanufactured, refurbished and reused. The generator itself is powered by 100% renewable energy.

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Roger continued, with the production of three fully electric heavy-duty truck models starting this year in Europe, Volvo Trucks will offer a total of six electric truck models globally, covering everything from municipal distribution and waste handling to regional transportation and construction works.

“With the rapid development of charging networks, and improvements in battery technology, I am confident that we will see a rapid transformation of the entire trucking industry in the near future,” concluded Roger Alm.