The vehicle industry has just started a game changing transformation towards electromobility. More and more cars and heavy vehicles will have hybrid solutions or be fully electric vehicles. And the transformation pace is high.
Sweden has a long tradition as a strong vehicle industry nation. To keep that strong position, it is a must to be in the technology forefront within electromobility.
The Swedish minister for enterprise and innovation, Mikael Damberg, held during 22nd May a meeting in Gothenburg to discuss what the government, the Swedish vehicle industry, the city of Gothenburg, universities and research institutes could do together to secure a strong position within electromobility. Among the companies represented at the meeting were Volvo Group, Scania and Volvo Cars.
The decision was to start a pre-study regarding a possible national laboratory for research and testing of everything in the electromobility area, from battery cells to drivelines and complete electric vehicles. Part of the pre-study is to agree on the cost split between the parties.
“We have with our hybrid and electric buses shown that Volvo Group has the competence to be in a leading position also when it comes to electromobility. We will take these steps also with our trucks and construction equipment”, says Lars Stenqvist, Volvo Group CTO.
“But we are only in the beginning of this transformation and there are still a lot of research and development ahead of us. We could benefit a lot from research co-operation with universities, institutes and other companies in a common research laboratory.”
