Industry News Roundup

NIKOLA CORP. announced that CEO and President Mark Russell will retire, effective January 1, 2023, and has named current Nikola Motor President Michael Lohscheller as his successor. Lohscheller will assume Russell’s president title and join the Nikola Board of Directors effective immediately and become CEO upon Russell’s retirement. Russell will remain a member of the Board.

Lohscheller joined the company as president of Nikola Motor in February 2022, and has already made a major impact in moving the Tre battery-electric vehicle into series production and achieving development milestones for the Tre fuel cell electric vehicle.

Andy Daw has joined JLG INDUSTRIES as its vice president of global procurement and supply chain. He takes on the position at parent company Oshkosh’s Access Equipment segment, which includes JLG aerial equipment and Jerr-Dan towing and recovery equipment brands.

Daw will lead the division’s global procurement and supply chain teams, providing a growth strategy and implementing initiatives to build a resilient supply chain for the company.

BIG ORDER FOR MACK DEFENSE FROM U.S. ARMY

Mack Defense said the U.S. Army and the U.S. Army Reserve have ordered an additional 144 Mack Defense M917A3 Heavy Dump Trucks (HDTs).

The added vehicles, based on the commercially available Mack Granite model, are part of a previously announced firm-fixed price $296 million contract to be fulfilled over seven years that the Army awarded Mack Defense in 2018. The HDTs are a key component in construction and maintenance missions for infrastructure assets such as airfields, roadways, landing strips, supply facilities and motor pools.

“We are proud to maintain our production operation which was created for the U.S. Army M917A3 HDT program, and we are extremely proud that our Mack Defense HDT vehicles, which have been fielded, are meeting and exceeding expectations,” said David Hartzell, president of Mack Defense. “Mack Defense remains committed to producing vehicles for the U.S. armed forces based on modified versions of our industry-leading Mack vehicles, providing the latest

VOLVO GROUP PL ANS BATTERY PL ANT IN SWEDEN

The Volvo Group said it plans to establish a large-scale production plant for battery cells in Sweden to help it meet a growing demand for batteryelectric heavy-duty vehicles and equipment.

“We aim to lead the transition to a decarbonized transport system and have the long-term ambition to offer our customers solutions that are 100% fossil free,” said Martin Lundstedt, president and CEO, Volvo Group. “There is a strong demand from our customers already today, and by 2030, it is our ambition that at least 35% of the products we sell are electric. This ramp-up will require large volumes of highperforming batteries produced using fossil-free energy and it is a logical next step for us to include battery production in our future industrial footprint.”

An extensive site localization study indicated the Skaraborg region in Sweden would be an ideal location for the plant. The proposed site in the

BUSINESS NOTES

GENERAC GRID SERVICES, a subsidiary of Generac Power Systems, has been awarded a multi-year contract from Arizona Public Service (APS) to deliver additional grid capacity from residential battery storage systems.

The agreement leverages Generac Grid Services’ Concerto distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) to provide the requested capacity as well as advanced grid services. In turn, the partnership is expected to help increase the presence of Generac’s PWRcell battery systems in order to provide energy to the grid.

The solution comes as part of APS’ Distributed Demand-Side Resources (DDSR) Aggregation Tariff, which encourages customers to install smart technologies such as PWRcell along with other energy saving products.

Generac Grid Services was reportedly the sole bidder to provide all the requested products under the tariff. Its Concerto will deliver capacity, demand response and loadshifting resources as well as more advanced DERMS use cases, including locational value, voltage support and other ancillary grid services.

technologies and best value while meeting the military’s demanding requirements.”

The Army previously ordered 155 HDTs, which are spec’d with heavier-duty rear axles, all-wheel drive, increased suspension ride height and other ruggedized features to meet the Army's unique requirements. Those HDTs have all been built and final deliveries will continue through August 2022.

The Granite HDTs and the production line at the Mack Experience Center (MEC) in Allentown, Pa., were inspected by government quality auditors to ensure both met expectations. Production of HDTs began in Q1 2021, following an investment of $6.5 million to create a dedicated HDT production line at the facility. The production line helps fulfill the M917A3 contract, while allowing Mack Defense to produce other vehicle variants.

The production line in the MEC is in Mack’s former Customer Adaptation Center, where vehicle modifications occurred. The Customer Adaptation Center has since moved to Mack’s Lehigh Valley Operations (LVO) in Macungie, Pa., where all Mack Class 8 vehicles for North America and export are assembled. Previously, nonarmored HDTs vehicles began production at LVO and were transported to the MEC for final assembly. ■

municipality of Mariestad is situated close to Volvo Group’s Volvo Penta engine plant in Skövde and is expected to benefit from the region’s existing industrial and logistics infrastructure. The Volvo Group’s R&D centers and headquarters in Gothenburg are two hours away.

The Volvo Group said it plans to gradually increase capacity and reach largescale series production by 2030. The battery cells will be designed specifically for commercial vehicle applications, supporting the global roll-out of electric trucks, buses, construction equipment and electric drivelines.

Establishment of the production site is subject to approvals from relevant authorities. n

A battery-electric truck from Volvo Truck.

ILLUSTRATION: VOLVO TRUCK CORP. SAFEAI has announced Sudhanshu Singh has joined the company as senior vice president of Global Operations. In this role, he will lead the end-to-end deployment of autonomous solutions for customers worldwide. He will also support teams to identify and pursue new opportunities for growth as demand for autonomous heavy equipment continues to grow.

Sudhanshu has 30-plus years of experience in mining, quarry and construction equipment. Prior to joining SafeAI, he was part of Caterpillar’s mining equipment team. He led the global large mining truck business for several years, launching new electric drive, Tier 4 and autonomous trucks.

“Across the heavy machinery industry, there’s an urgent need for OEM-agnostic and simple autonomous solutions,” said Sudhanshu. “So many construction and mining companies want to optimize mixed fleets with backwardcompatible state of the art new technology retrofit kits for any make or model of machines. I was drawn to SafeAI because it addresses this need head on and meets the customer requirement for existing fleets as well as new fleets of machines.”

BRUNSWICK CORP. has formed a new company, Navico Group, to replace the current Advanced Systems Group (ASG). The company said the move represents a complete organizational integration between the legacy ASG business with two key acquisitions that were completed in late 2021 – Navico and Relion Battery LLC.

The Navico Group will be comprised of brands that serve the marine, RV, specialty vehicle and industrial markets. It will be underpinned by four strategic business units: ● Power Systems: Developing energy storage, conversion and delivery solutions for end-market applications. ● Digital Systems: Integrating command and control experiences on- and off-board. ● Fishing Systems: Delivering the “ultimate fishing system” through integrating on-board systems. ● Performance Components: Building a product portfolio across categories such as fuel systems, lighting, vessel stabilization, water management, etc., for multiple end markets.