Volvo’s heavy electric truck, the Volvo FH Electric, has been selected as International Truck of the Year 2024. In explaining its decision, the jury praised the truck’s performance, seamless acceleration, quietness and vibration-free behavior.
“With the introduction of the FH Electric, Volvo Trucks has delivered a state-of-the-art battery electric vehicle range, suitable for a wide array of transport operations,” says Gianenrico Griffini, chairman, International Truck of the Year. “It’s proof that the energy transition is gaining strength even in today’s challenging business environment.”
Roger Alm, president of Volvo Trucks, accepted the award recently during the prize ceremony at the Solutrans Transport Exhibition in Lyon, France.
“I am very proud that our Volvo FH Electric has won this highly respected award,” says Alm. “For the first time in history, the transport industry has chosen an electric vehicle as Truck of the Year. The Volvo FH Electric represents a new era in trucking, and winning this award clearly shows that the shift to zero-emission transport is happening here and now.”
This is the fourth time that Volvo’s FH model has been named Truck of the Year. The Volvo FH is one of the industry’s most successful models with nearly 1.4 million trucks sold all over the world.
The Volvo FH Electric can operate at a total of 44 tonnes. Production of the vehicle started in 2022 in Volvo’s factory in Gothenburg, Sweden, and production in the factory in Ghent, Belgium, began in 2023.
Volvo Trucks began series production of electric trucks in 2019, and today has a total of six electric trucks designed to handle a variety of transport assignments. Volvo Trucks has a heavy electric truck market share of 49% in Europe.
The International Truck of the Year organization was launched in 1977 and is made up of 24 commercial vehicle journalists from trucking magazines throughout Europe. The annual award is given to the truck introduced in the previous 12 months that has made the most significant contribution to road transport efficiency. Several key criteria are evaluated, including technological innovation, comfort, safety, driveability, energy efficiency, environmental “footprint” and total cost of ownership (TCO).