Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - June 2023 - 19

EXECUTIVE VIEWPOINTS
Volvo Trucks will start producing
trucks with its rear e-axle " in
a few years " for customers
covering longer routes.
on wheels. " We wanted to provide our customers with
service and maintenance solutions, which is white glove. "
Volvo Blue contracts are purchased for a set mileage,
from 100,000 miles (160,934 km) to 600,000
miles (965,606 km) and can be bundled into the purchase
price of the truck. When one of the 37 dealers in
15 states that have been certified for Volvo Blue (seven
more locations will open later in 2023) performs maintenance
on a covered vehicle, they will always run a
74-point inspection, including analyzing the oil to
make sure it's being changed appropriately. This is
supplemented by remote diagnostics that can, in some
situations, identify upcoming issues and suggest that
the truck comes into the shop before something goes
wrong. Volvo monitors its connected trucks 24/7 from
its North American headquarters in Greensboro, NC.
Based on its Blue contracts in Europe, Volvo Trucks
now has an understanding of how long some components
will reasonably last. This knowledge, combined
with constant sensor readings, allows certified service
contract operators to proactively schedule an inspection
for a time when the shop will have the personnel,
parts and space to service the truck.
" Planned or scheduled stops are fine for a customer.
They can work with that, " Klevenfeldt said. " But the
worst thing that can happen is when you have a
breakdown that's not planned, and then the whole
transportation chain gets disrupted. "
Certified EV dealer expansion
Last year, Volvo had 18 EV-certified dealerships in
North America. This year, the number has grown to 36
locations in 19 states, with an additional 56 locations
on the road to certification. The steps required to beTRUCK
& OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
Volvo Trucks is currently taking reservations for hub-to-hub autonomous transport
on its first lanes in Texas - from Dallas-Fort Worth to El Paso and Dallas to Houston.
come an EV-certified dealer started to be formulated during Volvo
LIGHTS, a $91-million public-private project that tested all-electric
tractor-trailers in Southern California between 2019 and 2022. Volvo
LIGHTS - which stands for Low Impact Green Heavy-Transport
Solutions - taught the company what sort of training certified mechanics
would need and which parts they should have on hand.
Even employees who don't directly work on the vehicles need to
understand what's different about EVs, Klevenfeldt said. " They need
to understand what it means to have electric trucks with high voltage
in the area, " he said. " What do I do? What don't I do? There is also
sales training because selling an electric truck is very different from
selling a diesel truck. "
June 2023 19
BOTH IMAGES: SAE/SEBASTIAN BLANCO
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - June 2023

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