Volvo triples EV dealership locations in 12 months, with dozens more planned
ANAHEIM, California—Volvo Trucks has tripled its number of certified electric vehicle dealerships in North America over the past year and has dozens more in the process of gaining certification.
Volvo Trucks North America President Peter Voorhoeve pinned the rapid growth this past year to the success of the three-year Volvo LIGHTS project that brought together 14 public and private partners to design and implement a blueprint for the support ecosystem necessary to deploy battery-electric trucks and equipment at scale.
“In the beginning, you needed to sell the story to your dealers,” he told FleetOwner during an interview at the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo here. “Because we were very successful with selling the Phase One truck, they were like, ‘alright.’ I think it was a compelling story that they saw—because we didn’t have to push that much.”
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Since Volvo Truck dealers needed certification to sell the vehicles, they saw the business case for certification. To get the Volvo seal of approval to be an EV dealer, a dealership’s sales, maintenance, and parts staff must be trained on the newer battery-electric vehicles. While Volvo Trucks has heavy-duty EVs in markets worldwide, its flagship North America electric truck is the VNR Electric. The OEM has already delivered 251 of the regional EV trucks built at its New River Valley facility in Dublin, Virginia.
The 12 certified dealers in May 2022 have grown to 36 locations in 19 states in May 2023. VTNA said an additional 56 sites have begun the certification process. Certified EV dealerships are a cornerstone in the Volvo Trucks "electromobility ecosystem," Voorhoeve said.
The Volvo Trucks Certified EV Dealership program was designed to ensure the robust sales and service ecosystem required to support customers with the commercial deployment of Class 8 battery-electric trucks. Additional certified locations in three new states—Alabama, Delaware, and Oklahoma—and 56 more dealerships were announced during a presentation for industry media on May 2 at ACT Expo.
The newest certified electric dealers are Bergey’s Truck Center in New Castle, Delaware; Bruckner Truck Sales in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Burr Truck & Trailer Sales in Vestal, New York; Nextran Truck Center in Fultondale, Alabama, Lake City, Florida, and Tampa, Florida; and Western Truck Center in West Sacramento, California.
Creating a ‘robust and total ecosystem’
“Volvo Trucks is proud to be leading the deployment of Class 8 battery-electric trucks across North America, but we are even more proud to have been the first OEM to understand the need to create a robust and total ecosystem of support for Class 8 battery-electric trucks,” Voorhoeve added.
Volvo Trucks has continued to focus on designing and implementing tools, programs, and services to support customers with their transition to electromobility solutions, he said. The Volvo Trucks Certified EV Dealership program was introduced in 2020 as part of the Volvo LIGHTS Project, during which TEC Equipment, Volvo Trucks’ largest West Coast dealer group, supported the first Volvo VNR Electric demonstration trucks.
See also: For those skeptical of EVs, Volvo offers ‘electromobility ecosystem’
Three years later, Volvo Trucks has certified 36 dealers in 19 states and three Canadian provinces. The 56 other locations in the process of becoming Volvo Trucks Certified EV Dealerships would add 18 new states for a total of 37 U.S. states and one new province for a total of four Canadian provinces.
Sales teams at Volvo Trucks Certified EV Dealerships consult with customers considering the Volvo VNR Electric model and have access to various resources and digital tools designed to help customers decarbonize their fleet and maximize vehicle performance and benefits. Service teams at the certified EV dealerships are trained and equipped to safely perform preventive maintenance and repairs for battery-electric trucks in operation and support the Volvo Gold Service Contract.
The Volvo Gold Contract, Volvo Trucks’ service offering for the VNR Electric, is a turnkey solution that allows customers operational peace of mind with electric trucks, according to the OEM. It includes the full Uptime Services bundle for the Volvo VNR Electric, combining Volvo Trucks’ battery monitoring service with its Remote Diagnostics, Volvo Action Service, and ASIST, via the 24/7 Uptime Center.
Volvo-certified EV dealerships provide scheduled and preventive maintenance, towing, and vehicle repair, including servicing the vehicle’s energy storage unit and the complete electromobility system, to ensure peak vehicle uptime, performance, and productivity.
“Having a supporting EV Certified Dealership is critical to a successful deployment of battery-electric vehicles,” said Alexis Clemons, VTNA’s electromobility sales manager. “Once a customer expresses interest in adding a VNR Electric truck to a specific region, we immediately engage the local servicing dealer to ensure the certification process is completed or underway and will be ready to support the Volvo VNR Electric upon delivery.”
