Innovation in focus when French President and Swedish PM visited Volvo Group

Martin Lundstedt hosted prominent guests on Friday 17 November when the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Löfven visited Volvo Group Headquarters in Lundby in conjunction with an EU Summit in Gothenburg.
Four men in front of a Volvo refuse truck

The VIP guests arrived quietly and emission-free to the Volvo Group in a Volvo 7900 Electric bus. President and CEO Martin Lundstedt gave a presentation of the Volvo Group and several technological innovations in the Volvo Group Expo hall, where products were lined up both outside and inside the hall for the special occasion.

Bruno Blin, President Renault Trucks, Emmanuel Levacher, President Governmental Sales, and Håkan Agnevall, President Volvo Buses, also participated together with a number of innovation experts.

“It is a great honor for the Volvo Group to host an event like this and to welcome Stefan Löfven and Emmanuel Macron to our headquarters here at Campus Lundby. Sweden and France are very important countries for the Volvo Group and we have a strong presence in both”, says Martin Lundstedt.

Outside the headquarter entrance, the ministers and other guests and media representatives, were welcomed by a truck line-up from Volvo Trucks and Renault Trucks; the Volvo autonomous refuse truck, Volvo FH LNG, Renault Trucks T 460  and Volvo FH16 Volvo Ocean Race edition.

Three stations were prepared inside the hall to explain and showcase Volvo Group’s progress in the field of automation, electromobility and connectivity; the electric excavator EX2, Renault Trucks Urban Lab 2 and a battery pack used for the electric bus.

The President and the Prime Minister concluded the visit at Volvo Group and in Gothenburg by signing a Memorandum of understanding which marks a French-Swedish Partnership for development of innovation and green solutions in the field of transport and societies.

“Thank you for welcoming us here to the Volvo Group. We went with a short trip in the electric bus to come here to the Volvo headquarter and I think this bus is a good example of collaborations that delivers a lot of result. We have a challenge with green transformation and digital transformation and both areas can be accelerated with cooperation between our two countries,” said President Emmanuel Macron at the press conference in the Volvo Group Expo Hall.

On Thursday 16 November, the Prime Minister of Belgium, Charles Michel, met Håkan Agnevall, President Volvo Buses, to discuss electromobility during a demonstration drive with the Volvo 7900 Electric on the streets of Gothenburg. The discussion included the several benefits of electromobility, such as enabling emissions-free, noise-free and energy-efficient sustainable public transport. Charles Michel showed great appreciation and made a TV-broadcasted press conference onboard the bus.