Volvo Group North America has published a Volvo LIGHTS (Low Impact Green Heavy-Transport Solutions) Lessons Learned Guidebook to commemorate the end of its three-year project, which began in 2019 and concludes in early Fall 2022. The 22-page guidebook, Bringing Battery-Electric Freight Trucks to Market: From Demonstration to Commercialization, documents key insights gained as the project partners designed and implemented innovative programs and technologies critical for the widescale success of battery-electric freight movement.
The Volvo LIGHTS project, led by Volvo Group North America and South Coast Air Quality Management District (South Coast AQMD), is a public-private partnership between 14 organizations aimed at transforming freight movement. Supporting project partners include NFI Industries, Dependable Highway Express (DHE), TEC Equipment, Shell Recharge Solutions (formerly Greenlots), Port of Long Beach, Port of Los Angeles, Southern California Edison, CALSTART, the University of California, Riverside CE-CERT, Reach Out, Rio Hondo College, and San Bernardino Valley College. Each of the Volvo LIGHTS project partners played an integral role in helping transform goods movement, as they worked together to design a blueprint to introduce zero-tailpipe emission battery-electric trucks and equipment into the market at scale.
The Volvo LIGHTS Lessons Learned Guidebook is organized into a series of short chapters:
- Establishing new partnerships;
- Demonstrating Class 8 battery-electric vehicle innovations;
- Advancements in warehouse equipment;
- Reliable and cost-effective charging infrastructure;
- Strategies to reduce total cost of ownership;
- Cutting-edge job training needed; and
- Robust sales and service support.