Jonathan Taylor continues his report from Gothenburg and Volvo’s new World of Volvo exhibition and conference centre
Last month’s ‘World of Volvo’ event in Gothenburg brought together operators from across the world making it a truly global gathering of the industry. After the spectacular reveal and launch of the Volvo BZR electromobility platform, there was a packed second day of presentations, discussions and even some light-hearted gaming. Volvo used the day to bring all the attendees up to date with its latest thinking on a range of subjects.
Volvo Buses President Anna Westerberg started the proceedings with a short talk in which she gave us the mantra ‘Partnership is the new Leadership.’ She emphasised that, with the big changes taking place in how vehicles are powered and the drive for net zero, Volvo, even as a global business, could not do everything itself. It needed, she said, its strong worldwide partnerships with many other large and small businesses to successfully make the leap to what will be the different technical world of one or two decades ahead.
The first session was entitled ‘Sustainability Beyond Emissions.’ In this session, Volvo’s Chief Sustainability Officer Karin Svensson gave us the overview of how the Swedish company is thinking and acting.
Volvo is committed to all its own fleets becoming fossil free by 2040 and aiming to have all its customer fleets fossil free by 2050. Anna went on to tell us that Volvo will always play fair and is concerned with taking action beyond the words. She said: “Electrification, of course, contributes to
less CO2.”
For early large battery technology that may not have been true, but Volvo is clear that this is a complex subject requiring solutions throughout the sourcing, manufacture, use and afterlife use of every component in the supply chain. It wants to be first mover in building sustainable supply systems. This means that Volvo, with its partners, is integrating sustainability into everything it does. It is addressing the entire electrification ‘ecosystem.’
Volvo gave examples of ecosystem partnership working with the International Association of Public Transport (UITP: Union Internationale des Transports Publics) and Keolis which, although mainly a light rail operator in the UK, operates a fleet of 25,000 buses worldwide.
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