Volvo Trucks to provide 74 ton electric truck for iron ore transport
Swedish mining company Kaunis Iron will test 74 ton electric truck provided by Volvo Trucks. The e-truck will transport iron one in an environmentally friendly way. Kaunis Iron plans to make huge investments in truck electrification in order to make its own activity greener. Today, Kaunis transports its ore over a 160-kilometer road between Kaunisvaara and Pitkäjärvi in northern Sweden, using Volvo trucks run on diesel. A total of thirty 90-ton semi-trailers make the journey around the clock. The plan going forward is to switch to battery-electric trucks for heavy transportation, so that it can operate completely fossil-free with zero CO2 emissions.
Volvo Trucks and the 74 ton electric truck project
“Our goal is to achieve fossil-free transport by 2025”, said Lars Wallgren, head of logistics at Kaunis Iron. “We are working hard right now to solve our transport with electric trucks. If we succeed, we can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 15,000 tons per year at the current production rate. We will start the next phase using 74-ton trucks in 2023, with the aim of moving up to 90 tons. This would be an unchanged gross combination weight compared to today’s diesel-powered crew”.The project is a collaboration between Kaunis Iron, Volvo Trucks’ dealer Wist Last & Buss and the energy company Vattenfall who will support with charging infrastructure for the electric trucks. “Volvo Trucks has very ambitious sustainability goals and we are very happy to be a supplier in this project, which will really make a difference. Kaunis Iron’s transport of iron ore is the most challenging application imaginable in terms of train weights, cold climate and utilization rate”, commented Ebba Bergbom Wallin, Commercial Electromobility Manager, Volvo Trucks Sweden.
