Damian Vilella, commercial director of Volvo Trucks & Buses Argentina, He referred to the importance of the electric vehicles and the search for truck automation, participating in the first panel of Scope of debate on New Mobility.
During the event, moderated by the journalistic director of Ámbito, Julian Guarino, Vilella stressed that the century-old company is thinking about “the application of solutions that aim to improve efficiency, sustainability and safety in heavy transport activities”, While today it is “very strongly focused on electrification.”
In this regard, he indicated that it has “a complete line of trucks from urban distribution to long distance for emission-free transport, using electric technology,” while working on “the selection of materials for reduce carbon emissions “generating the use of fossil fuels with the aim of reducing total emissions.”
The durability and autonomy of batteries
Regarding heavy trucks, Vilella assured that “The most important challenge is the durability and autonomy of the batteries,” Therefore, he stated that “in distribution or short-distance transport, the battery life is sufficient to carry out tasks 100% electrically, as is the case with waste collection.”
In this sense, he contrasted: “For long-distance distribution it will take longer with the arrival of hydrogen, which we hope will be available by the end of the decade.”
At that point, he stressed: “Our expertise and development was based on the electronic management of the charge and discharge levels of the batteries as well as the useful life through the control of the external temperature, with sophisticated cooling systems that keep the battery intact in the city and in the mountains, with low and high temperatures.”
Strategies to attract customers
On the other hand, Vilella highlighted that “consumers have an environmental awareness that has to do with the new generations and the pandemic has accelerated this,” but admitted that “The higher acquisition cost represents a barrier to promoting and accelerating this energy transition.”
“Companies have a corporate strategy determined or to attract customers they seek that a certain percentage of the fleet is already free of contaminants and they are setting their strategy as a way to advance in the transition and begin testing new technologies before adopting them massively,” he explained.
At the same time, he stressed that “in Argentina We are fortunate not to have pollution problems in large cities like in other countries and that makes us all a little more relaxed, but We are waiting and working to make this energy transition a reality in the coming years.”
Technology adoption
The Volvo representative admitted that “there are regulations on polluting emissions that mark the way forward”, while “companies make their own contributions in technology to continue improving”.
“There are improvements that are purely from the engines, But there are other aspects as well. We hope to incorporate tire pressure monitoring sensors, which doesn’t seem to be related, but connects to our telemetry system to know If a tire has less pressure, which impacts on higher fuel consumption, a risk of tire burst and the logical road risks,” projection.
At the same time, Vilella considered that “the articulation of the different actors will be fundamental in the transition” and linked to the application of artificial intelligence He noted: “We are working on automating truck driving.”
In that sense, he admitted that “There were successful tests in controlled environments such as mining, where there are no pedestrians and it is relatively easy to drive without risks.”
However, he clarified that “it requires a lot of planning because you have to consider where it will go, where it will stop and the points it will pass through on its way, but this will allow us to continue developing to have safer, more autonomous and more efficient vehicles.”
Source: Ambito
