VOLVO FL ELECTRIC ARRIVES

Fonterra has snapped up the first electric Volvo truck on New Zealand soil. The Volvo FL Electric truck will undergo a sixmonth trial at the Fonterra Brands distribution centre in Mangere.

Fonterra Brands New Zealand managing director Brett Henshaw says that the new truck is an important step for the co-op as it looks to reduce emissions across its entire supply chain.

“Our objective is to fulfil our co-op’s long-term commitment to being a leader in sustainability while also upholding our customer commitments,” he says.

Paul Illmer, vice president of emerging technology business development at Volvo Group Australia, says Volvo has a battery-electric or fuel-cell electric alternative for every internal combustion engine model on the market, either currently in production or at the trial stage.

He says the actual truck is only part of the solution regarding New Zealand’s transition to sustainable transport. “Selecting the right model and specification for application and route is critical, as is driver training, specialist aftersales support, and charging infrastructure,” he says.

The new truck is one part of Fonterra’s wider fleet decarbonisation journey. Last year, it implemented a new policy stating all light vehicles that can be electric should be transitioned when they are next replaced. Fonterra plans for more than 300 light vehicles to be electric by the end of 2023.

The co-op has also invested in its tanker fleet, adopting the latest technology in terms of efficiency and lower emissions. Early in 2022, Fonterra began trials of the first fully electric milk tanker in New Zealand.

Utilising Sime Darby’s mobile events centre, it short, sharp and to the point, with well-informed speakers, including Paul Illmer, the vice president of emerging technology business development at Volvo Group Australia. After ‘class’ time, there was a lengthy gallop around the local traps in the 16-tonne GVM Viking.

A low, easy-entry metro gig, the FL Electric is certainly a purposeful wee Volvo with the closest you’d get to a utilitarian interior flavour from the premier Swedish brand. That said, it’s utilitarian done well, with easy-clean quality materials in slightly sombre tones, still able to deliver a classy-if-colourless ambience (you know what I’m like on colourless cab interiors).

As you’d expect, everything you need to operate the good chariot – which isn’t much – falls easily to hand in the cockpit.

With Volvo’s driver trainer for New Zealand, Sean Webb, as chaperone, we powered her up and charged ahead.

The cooperative dairy giant intends to use the FL Electric on metro deliveries and inter-branch transfer work in the City of Sails. Having said that, the model is capable of up to 300km, so Hamilton-and-back with a quick zap for inhibiting your own Cortisol production at about Pokeno on the way home is well on the radar screen.

Typical of the breed, the FL Electric was whisper-quiet and super responsive, easily darting through the Mangere industrial hinterland. There’s no question our cities will become a lot quieter in the years ahead, and generally speaking, it must be a good thing.

The FL Electric will have no issue keeping pace on a motorway burst. In fact, like its brethren, it’ll likely set it.

The underlying BEV weight is always apparent when behind the wheel; in time, its seat-of-the-pants presence will become the new normal.

Driving past the ‘in’ gate, I executed a three-pointer in the street, getting a firsthand insight into the FLE’s nimble nature.

A BEV of European descent for chunky last- and first-mile tasks in the 21st century, it really is a no-brainer. (And it will be an issue for the hearing aid companies a few years down the track.) – Dave

McCoid