The New South Wales Rural Fire Service is putting the new, 600 km Volvo FM Electric semi truck through its paces as they work to decarbonize their emergency vehicle fleet and keep Australia safe from the devastating effects of wildfires.
The Volvo FM Electric is on loan to the NSW RFS for an extended test drive as part of a broader effort to understand how low- and zero-emissions vehicles can be integrated into the agency’s emergency services fleets in the future — and the early results are positive!
In an impressive display of capability, the electric semi truck tackled the 550 kilometer route (340 miles) from the services’ Glendenning NSW logistics headquarters to the border city of Albury with a loaded up RFS water tanker in tow. The truck and trailer arrived just in time to be displayed at the NSW RFS Championships in the suburb of Thurgoona.
The truck was operated by a two-man driving team consisting of Inspector Brendan Doyle, RFS Logistics Manager, and RFS Logistics & Transport Supervisor Peter Duff, who shared driving duties over the route to asses the performance Volvo FM Electric, as well as the heavy vehicle charging experience at each side of the trip.
“This drive presented a great opportunity for us to touch, feel and experience an electric prime mover on public roads,” explained Doyle. “It also allows us to consider where a vehicle like this could fill roles within our logistics fleet in the future.”
Doyle’s partner on the ride concurs. “The driving experience was sensational,” added Duff, “One of the key takeaways for me was that you could take anyone familiar with an existing Volvo truck and they’d be able to drive this without additional training at all.”
The truck averaged 88.7 km/h on the trip, with an energy consumption of 1.24 kWh/km — a figure comparable to the Tesla Semi, which Tesla CEO Elon Musk claims uses 2 kWh of energy per mile. The big Volvo required less than 2 total hours’ charging to complete the 6 hour and 15 minute trip with stops at Goulburn and Tarcutta.
Electrek’s Take
It’s great to see electric semi trucks being used in real-world heavy haul applications, as opposed to the easy-to-criticize potato chip hauling performances we’ve seen other brands put up in the recent past. As Volvo’s deployed electric truck fleet knocks on the door of 100 million miles driven, it’s hard to believe Tesla will be able to catch up.
That said, it’s happened before — who among us though the Model Y would be the best selling car in the world back in 2014? If you did, scroll on down to the comments and let us know.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Volvo Trucks.