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Charging into the mainstream: Volvo electrifies its first class-8 truck:

The reality of a production-ready fully electric semi is now upon us, at least for the short-haul routes. Last week, Volvo Trucks revealed the VNR Electric, the centerpiece of an ambitious and highly collaborative $90-million pilot project. It's known as Low-Impact Green Heavy Transport Solution, or LIGHTS for short. In addition to Volvo, which has invested $36.7 million, 14 other entities from both the public sector and private enterprise have signed on to this collaboration.

"Bringing electric trucks commercially to market takes more than the launch of the truck," says Keith Brandis, vice president of partnerships and strategic solutions at Volvo Group. "With the LIGHTS program, Volvo and its partners are working on creating a true holistic strategy," simultaneously studying not only the performance of the truck itself, but also variables such as maintenance needs, route logistics, infrastructure requirements, and environmental impact.

"Goods movement in the region is one of the biggest contributors to smog-causing emissions and 22 percent of emissions from California's overall transport sector," says Harmeet Singh, chief technology officer at Greenlots, the company developing and deploying the charging infrastructure for the LIGHTS program.

"Our goal for the project is to demonstrate that electric trucks and the requisite charging infrastructure and systems are ready for real-world application," Singh told Ars.

[...] Getting the VNR Electric into the hands of transportation companies is where this real-world testing begins, and Brandis is eager to move on to that next phase. These first five pilot trucks "will be placed into consumer operations for daily use once their charging systems are powered on, which is expected to be within the coming weeks," he said.

This is where the collaborative partnership of LIGHTS really comes into play. Goods transport is a tightly coordinated system of logistics and timing and depends on a consistent, reliable supply chain. Singh explains: "One of the goals of the pilot is to see how electric trucks and their usage pattern can be woven into various duty cycles for freight customers."

The expected range of 75-175 miles is an important metric. The Inland Empire region of Southern California is an ideal starting place for these routes: the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles are roughly 50 miles (80km) away, the massive Colton rail depot lies 20 miles (32km) to the east, and Ontario International Airport is just around the corner.

As it is, the initial operators of the VNR Electric will have to contend with a higher initial cost, a shorter range, and additional weight, which means tweaking that existing successful model of transport to accommodate an electric vehicle's inherent shortcomings. But Brandis views these as opportunities, not challenges. "Our years of experience with heavy-duty trucks taught us to expect service issues as part of the testing. We will use telematics technology to see truck miles operated, loads hauled, battery state of charge, and charging cycles."

Evaluating that data will be essential to the official launch of the VNR Electric, which is set to start production by the end of 2020. And though the LIGHTS program is in its nascent stages, Troy Musgrave, director of process improvement for Dependable Transportation, is optimistic about its expansion beyond Southern California. While the VNR Electric has a long way to go, "My hope is that battery technology will accelerate to match the range and use cycles that we have with diesel today."

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