Volvo Trucks partners with startups on electric fleet charging

Volvo Trucks North America is building a community of innovators that are designing solutions to support the global transition to more sustainable transport systems. The Innovation Lab at Volvo Group, located in the heart of Silicon Valley, is a place where the manufacturer can collaborate with startups to combine real-world insights, analyze emerging trends, and validate new products and services aimed at helping customers improve both their economic and environmental sustainability goals.

“Volvo Trucks is committed to continuing to lead the global movement to decarbonize transport,” said Peter Voorhoeve, president of Volvo Trucks North America. “When we commercialized our Class 8 Volvo VNR Electric model, we recognized the critical need to work with an array of partners to build a successful ecosystem for electromobility—considering everything from the point of sale, to building a comprehensive service network, developing a skilled workforce, and ensuring access to a stable and cost-effective power supply. Volvo Trucks is collaborating with companies across the industry to demonstrate a range of strategies to achieve these goals, including supporting emerging solutions providers through our Innovation Lab at Volvo Group.”

At the Innovation Lab, ideas and collaborations often originate from the startup community. One example is AMPLY Power, an electric vehicle charging and energy management provider that joined the lab in 2019. As a member of the Innovation Lab, AMPLY has shared its insight into some of the charging infrastructure challenges that could deter fleet operators from investing in a battery-electric fleet. In turn, Volvo Trucks has shared its valuable real-world experience gained from working with multiple customers that have installed charging infrastructure to support the deployment of Volvo VNR Electrics.

“The Innovation Lab in Silicon Valley is the perfect environment for Volvo Group and the startup ecosystem to co-create solutions that bring value to all industry stakeholders,” said Fredy Daza, director of the Volvo Group Connected Solutions Innovation Lab. “Having AMPLY as a member of our ‘innovation community’ has helped provide visibility to some of the challenges in deploying and reliably managing charging infrastructure for Class 8 electric vehicles, which is essential to the success of the transport industry's electrification journey.”

Real-world deployment

The Volvo VNR Electric model, commercialized in December 2020, has been deployed to numerous fleets in the U.S. to support drayage, local, and regional distribution, pickup and delivery, and food and beverage distribution. Volvo Trucks and AMPLY plan to team up to support a California fleet customer in designing and managing its electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure plan to maximize cost savings, charging efficiency and vehicle uptime. AMPLY is also supporting the charge-management program for Manhattan Beer Distributors, which is deploying its first five Volvo VNR Electric trucks in its New York beverage distribution fleet.

"The Volvo Trucks North America and AMPLY collaboration offers a simple low-risk solution to deploying and scaling heavy-duty electric fleets," Vic Shao, CEO and founder of AMPLY Power, said. “Customers need integrated solutions that offer guaranteed performance and uptime of their EV fleet, while optimizing charging operations for lowest cost energy.”