Volvo construction vehicle sales in Asia account for 62% sales in that market segment, while total Volvo Asia sales sits at 19%
The Volvo Group now has more than one million connected trucks, buses, and pieces of construction equipment gathering and delivering data to customers across the world, with Asia dominating construction equipment sales
5 October 2019 | Staff Writers
While connectivity is viewed as a convenience by consumers it is rapidly becoming a must for heavy vehicles. Swedish car and truck maker, Volvo says its connected trucks are making the industry more efficient, society safer and the environment cleaner. This week the company delivered four electric powered excavators to a company in Denmark, pushing total sales beyond the one million mark.
“The connected solutions bring increased vehicle and construction equipment uptime for our customers, better safety for drivers, operators and other road users – and of course – less emissions of carbon dioxide. The first million connected assets is only the start, we are committed to remain a leader in this field,” says Martin Lundstedt, President and CEO of the Volvo Group.
As more and more people move into cities, the needs for better infrastructure as well as transportation of both people and goods are growing.
“The Volvo Group is a pioneer in connected vehicles and we use the knowledge and insights we get from connectivity in strategic alliances with customers and other partners to speed up the innovation cycle,” says Lars Stenqvist, Chief Technology Officer at the Volvo Group.
Volvo Group uses data from connected vehicles and construction equipment to develop solutions that provide real value to the customer as well as to the society at large.
For example, connected Volvo buses use Zone Management to let the vehicle itself use downloaded data to comply with local traffic restrictions such as emission zones, noise zones and areas with speed limits.
For owners of construction equipment, thanks to the collected data, wear on crucial parts can be predicted, services planned and spare parts ordered in advance – all reducing downtime for the owner, thus leading to increased productivity.
Across most of its range of passenger, commercial and heavy vehicles traditional markets in Europe underpin total sales for Volvo, this is not the case for construction equipment. In the first six months of 2019, the company delivered 31,000 construction vehicle to the Asian market, representing 62% of global sales.
Total Volvo sales in Asia only account for 19% of the group’s revenue. However, it reported strong recent growth in China with figures for July showing an increase of 25% versus a global increase of 7%. The growth reflected strong demand for locally produced vehicles, from production facilities at Luqiao, Chengdu and Daqing.