USA: Volvo Increases Range of Gas-Powered Trucks

Volvo Group said that, under the Mack brand, the range of trucks powered by natural gas will be expanded by a further two models during 2013, Mack Pinnacle and Mack Granite.

The expansion entails that the Volvo Group will be also able to offer North American customers trucks powered by natural gas in the distribution and construction segment under the Mack brand. The Mack TerraPro model is already available to customers in the waste mangement segment. All models will be offered with engines powered by either liquid natural gas (LNG) or compressed natural gas (CNG).

Earlier this year, the Volvo Group announced that it planned to launch a proprietarily developed 13-liter engine for liquid natural gas (LNG) under the Volvo brand in the North American market in 2014. With the new solutions, the Volvo Group will capitalize on the expertise built up over many years with respect to developing alternative powertrains.

At the same time, further steps are being taken in the cooperation with the City of New York, where field tests have been conducted for a number of years using hybrid trucks for waste collection. The field tests will now be expanded to include the Mack TerraPro vehicle. The truck currently uses the Volvo Group’s proprietarily developed hybrid technology, which achieved major success primarily with respect to its buses, with customers in Gothenburg and London. The Volvo Group’s parallel hybrid reduced fuel consumption by up to 37%, compared with conventional diesel-powered buses.

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LNG World News Staff, June 14, 2012; Image: Mack Pinnacle