Fred Sherwood Transport has taken delivery of two 44-tonne Volvo FH Electric 6×2 tractor units to improve the sustainability of its operations and help its customers reduce their environmental impact.
The new trucks will be paired with specially-designed walking floor trailers, from Titan Trailers, for waste and recycling operations near the firm’s headquarters in Shepshed, Leicestershire.
Supplied by Hartshorne Group, each FH Electric is equipped with six batteries providing an approximate range of up to 300 km.
They are driven via three electric motors, capable of generating 666 hp and 2,400 Nm of continuous torque.
As with customers ordering diesel Volvo FH trucks, the FH Electrics use the standard I-Shift gearbox.
The spec also includes Volvo’s Forward Collision Warning with Advanced Emergency Braking and Lane Departure Warning systems to increase both truck and driver safety.
In addition, Volvo Trucks has supplied two wall-box AC 43 kW chargers to the Shepshed site, which the haulier plans to power utilising solar panels it has installed on the workshop roof.
The two trucks are backed by a five-year Volvo Gold Contract which covers all maintenance and repairs, including proactive monitoring of batteries and associated components.
They join a fleet of about 350 commercial vehicles across the Fred Sherwood Group.
Justin Sherwood, Director at Fred Sherwood Group, said: “We have the right routes to make electric work and we are looking forward to seeing how they bed in.
“Initially we will be looking to get roughly 180 miles from them, doing back-to-base work and charging them overnight at our depot.”
