Skip to main content

Volvo wins US government contract to develop supertruck

Under a SuperTruck contract established with the US Department of Energy, Volvo Technology of America is scheduled to receive US$19 million in federal funding to be used by the Volvo Group’s North American truck-related operations to improve the freight-moving efficiency of heavy-duty trucks and reduce greenhouse gases.
April 17, 2012 Read time: 1 min
Under a SuperTruck contract established with the US Department of Energy, 609 Volvo Technology of America is scheduled to receive US$19 million in federal funding to be used by the Volvo Group’s North American truck-related operations to improve the freight-moving efficiency of heavy-duty trucks and reduce greenhouse gases.

A team of researchers and engineers in Greensboro, North Carolina and Hagerstown, Maryland will spend the next five years developing high-efficiency heavy-duty truck technologies aimed at moving more freight with less fuel, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Improved truck aerodynamics and energy conversion efficiency, maximising the output potential of the energy source, are two areas that are claimed to hold great promise for Class 8 efficiency gains.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Reauthorization 2012: the facts laid bare
    September 12, 2012
    A reauthorization bill for transportation came into law in July 2012, rubber stamping federal funding increases through the 2014 financial year, among other things. The new bill presents the good, the bad and the ugly of transportation infrastructure in the US, writes Pat Jones On June 29 this year, the US House of Representatives and Senate both approved the conference report on the ‘Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act’ or MAP-21. President Obama signed this legislation into law on July 6.
  • Trailer telematics a catalyst for fleet optimisation, Finds Frost & Sullivan
    July 2, 2012
    The trailer telematics market is fast developing into a major growth engine for the commercial vehicles telematics market in Europe. Immense opportunities await telematics vendors as a majority of the trailer population in Europe (as well as North America) remains underpenetrated. Within the trailer telematics market, trailer location and tracking is the most developed application. However, security concerns and the need for effective mobile asset monitoring and management are creating several new applicati
  • Kapsch ‘opens the way’ to interoperability
    July 30, 2013
    Richard Turnock, chief technology officer of Kapsch TrafficCom North America explains what advantages its newly-opened TDM protocol can offer as a US-wide standard for tolling interoperability. The electronic tolling industry across the United States is evolving. Historically it was characterised by clusters of interoperability where a motorist may be able to use the same transponder across a large area, such as the 15-State E-ZPass system, or be confined to a single State system. Now, however, the industry
  • New freight air quality initiative to reduce harmful emissions in London
    May 26, 2016
    The LoCITY programme has taken its first steps to improve air quality in London by publishing data to help increase the availability and uptake of low emission vans and lorries, following its initial four months’ research. The research demonstrates that to reduce freight’s impact on London’s air quality the use of low emission commercial vehicles must be increased. It has also revealed some of the key barriers that are holding back the use of low emission vehicles. One area highlighted is a lack of info