Volvo's All-Electric Semi-Truck to Come Out of Hiding in 2019

Volvo Trucks' upcoming sustainable transport vehicle, the VNR Electric, will hit California highways next year and be up for purchase in 2020. Tesla is not the only company developing electric semi-trucks; Volvo Trucks this week announced that it, too, is in on the electric mass-transport game and in fact, has been since early this year. Earlier in the week, the company tweeted a couple pictures of their newest iteration of a green unit designed to haul:

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Just a few weeks later, the Volvo FE Electric was unveiled. Designed for even heavier duties weighing up to 27 tons, use of this vehicle will begin in Germany early next year. Now, Volvo Trucks is teasing a third electric truck model that's on the way. From the electric green, shadowed images of the vehicle, it's clear that the Volvo version will take on a much more traditional semi-truck face than Tesla's Semi which looks more like it's transporting groups of people on vacation than goods.

The development of this electric model was done in partnership with Volvo Group, California's South Coast Air Quality Management District, and industry leaders in transportation and electrical charging infrastructure (totalling 16 partners) who share the goal of creating a "comprehensive electrified transport ecosystem."

As the director of product marketing of Volvo Trucks North America Johan Agebrand said, the VNR models will be used for "heavy urban distribution, drayage and other regional applications where electric trucks will first have the greatest impact."

The demonstration units that will be shown off by Volvo next year will be based on FE Electric's drivetrain, technology that the company has had under its belt for a while now and which has a range of about 124 miles. The VNR Electric models will be on the road in the Golden State next year and will be commercialized in 2020.