Volvo CE announced its first-ever electric articulated haul truck at last year’s Bauma construction expo; less than a year later, the first examples of Volvo’s new A30 Electric are in customers’ hands, doing real work.
Norwegian contractor Leonhard Nilsen & Sønner AS became the first customer to deploy Volvo’s new, 30-ton A30 Electric articulated haul trucks, putting them to work at the Hafslund hydropower project and highlighting the fact that zero-emission equipment assets can support more sustainable infrastructure and energy production.
“We are proud to have secured the first A30 Electric haulers for LNS and the Hemsil 3 project, and we look forward to putting them to work,” says Steffen Solstrand Ludvigsen, Project Site Manager at LNS. “The project is a strong fit for this type of machine. We’ll be working in tunnels with blasting cycles, which allow time for charging between runs. That makes electric haulers particularly well suited to the work here.”
Set to be completed in 2029, the Hafslund hydro project is expected to generate more than 100 GWh of renewable electricity each year – and, by leaning into zero emission equipment options like Volvo’s, will have a relatively low sunk carbon cost at the outset.
“Hafslund has a strong environmental focus and takes a forward-leaning approach to electrifying construction operations on our projects,” explains Lars Oust, Project Manager at Hafslund Kraft. “To succeed in the green transition, we need to adopt new technology and take the lead as a client, driving demand for this type of equipment. That’s why being the first in the world to use electric haulers is so important to us.”
The two Volvo A30 Electric models will be put to work first in the construction of 20 km long tunnel (~12.5 miles), where their zero-emission running will also help to keep the project’s workers safe in the the hydro plant’s enclosed, underground spaces.
As a truck, the new Volvo A30 Electric offers a 29 tonne (~64,000 lbs.) payload capacity and promises a “full day” of operation on a single charge of its 245 kWh li-ion battery pack. Motivation is provided by a 350 kW (~470 hp) electric motor, with power going through a torque-amplifying gear reduction gearbox. Depending on how you do the math, peak “at the wheel” torque numbers are well over 200,000 lb-ft – more than enough, in other words, to match the performance of diesel and possibly enough to have a measurable impact on the rotational speed of the planet.
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