Volvo Trucks will demonstrate an all-electric truck in California next year with plans to bring it to market in North America in 2020. The truck is based on Volvo's existing FE Electric truck, which was developed for Europe and will go on sale there in 2019.

Funding for the demo project comes from the California Air Resources Board, which has preliminarily awarded $44.8 million to the South Coast Air Quality Management District to fund a project dubbed the Volvo Low Impact Green Heavy Transport Solutions. Volvo LIGHTS will involve 16 partners and deploy eight multi-configuration, battery-electric Class 8 demonstration units to two unnamed "top trucking fleets."

Volvo LIGHTS will also integrate non-truck battery electric equipment, non-proprietary chargers, and solar energy production equipment. The goal is to eliminate an estimated 3.57 tons of air pollutants and 3,020 tons of greenhouse gases annually.

The project is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that aims to use cap-and-trade dollars to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while also strengthening the state’s economy and improving public health and the environment.

“This is an excellent opportunity to show the end-to-end potential of electrification,” said Peter Voorhoeve, president of Volvo Trucks North America.  “From solar energy harvesting at our customer locations, to electric vehicle uptime services, to potential second uses for batteries, this project will provide invaluable experience and data for the whole value chain.”