Volvo Trucks’ FH Electric range has been elected International Truck of the Year 2024 by a jury of 24 commercial vehicle editors and senior journalists representing 24 major trucking magazines throughout Europe.

It is the first time in the 47-year history of the IToY Awards that an electric truck in series production wins this prize. Four vehicles out of five on this year’s ITOY Awards shortlist are battery-electric models with zero tailpipe emissions. It’s proof that the energy transition is gaining momentum in the transportation sector, even though a suitable enabling ecosystem for BEV is still not in place in the EU.

With a winning score of 84 votes, the Swedish truck manufacturer’s heavy-duty electric range fought off tough challenges from Mercedes-Benz’s eActros 300/400, equipped with an electric driveline, and the Scania’s 45S battery electric truck (BEV).

The annual award goes to the truck introduced into the market in the previous 12 months that makes the most significant contribution to road transport efficiency. This judgement relies on several critical criteria, including technological innovation, comfort, safety, driveability, energy efficiency, environmental ‘footprint,’ and total cost of ownership (TCO).

The IToY journalists praised the performance, seamless acceleration, quietness, and vibration-free behaviour of the FH Electric’s electric powertrain, based on two or three electric machines of 330 or 490kW continuous power coupled with the latest generation I-Shift gearbox. Equally crucial in FH Electric’s winning score for regional cargo transport were the vast axle configurations for tractors and rigid, the availability of four cab versions and the modular portfolio of battery packs.

IToY chairman Gianenrico Griffini commented: “With the introduction of the FH Electric, Volvo Trucks has delivered a state-of-the-art BEV range, suitable for a wide array of transport operations. It’s proof that energy transition is gaining strength even in today’s challenging business environment.”

Roger Alm, president of Volvo Trucks, accepted the prestigious award during the prize ceremony at the Solutrans Transport Exhibition in Lyon, France.

“I am so very proud that our Volvo FH Electric has won this highly respected award,” Alm said.

“For the first time in history the transport industry has chosen an electric vehicle as Truck of the Year. The Volvo FH Electric represents a new era in trucking and winning this award clearly shows that the shift to zero emission transport is happening here and now,” he said.

“I sincerely want to thank everyone who has contributed to this success. It’s based on great teamwork with passion and dedication among our colleagues within the Volvo Group, and close cooperation with our valued customers, partners and suppliers.”

This year’s win marks the fourth time that Volvo’s FH model has been named Truck of the Year. The Volvo FH is one of the industry’s most successful models ever with nearly 1.4 million trucks sold all over the world.

The Volvo FH Electric can operate at a total of 44 tonnes. Production of the Volvo FH Electric started in 2022 in Volvo’s factory in Gothenburg, Sweden, and production in the factory in Ghent, Belgium began in 2023.

Volvo Trucks was the first global manufacturer to start series production of electric trucks in 2019, and today it has a broad electric line-up with a total of six electric trucks designed to handle a wide variety of transport assignments. Volvo Trucks is leading the market for heavy electric trucks in Europe with a market share of 49%.

MAN’s autonomous driving projects win 2024 Truck Innovation Award

MAN’s autonomous driving projects ATLAS-L4 and ANITA have won the 2024 Truck Innovation Award.

It’s the second time MAN Truck & Bus has won this trophy, after the inaugural Truck Innovation Award of 2019 in recognition of its aFAS Level 4 automated driverless safety truck.

The IToY jury offers the Truck Innovation Award to acknowledge the automotive sector’s enormous technological changes and energy transition. With a winning score of 97 votes, MAN’s advanced projects fought off the competition from ZF’s electrified eAxle; Quantron-as-a-service (QaaS), a zero-emission platform provider for fuel-cell and battery electric commercial vehicles; and Westwell Q-Truck, an autonomous electric heavy-duty truck for innovative container logistics.

The ANITA project (Autonomous Innovation in Terminal Operations) started in 2020 to automate handling between different modes of transport. ANITA aims to use autonomous trucks to stabilise the processes involved in transferring containers from road to rail, making them more efficient, easier to plan and, at the same time, more flexible.

The ATLAS-L4 research and development project (Automated Transport between Logistics Centers on Level 4 Expressways) aims to put level 4 autonomous trucks on the road in real-world operations. The project stems from the German law on autonomous driving approved in 2021, which, in principle, allows automated driving on defined routes under technical supervision.

The IToY journalists praised the advanced characteristics of both projects, the contribution to hub-to-hub and intermodal transport automation and the fruitful cooperation between MAN Truck & Bus, component suppliers, research institutions and public authorities.

IToY chairman Gianenrico Griffini said: “MAN’s ANITA AND ATLAS-L4 projects are proof that autonomous driving is feasible today and can have a role in making transport operations safer and more efficient, laying the foundation for innovative transport and logistics concepts.”