UD Trucks sets 2030 vision

UD Trucks has launched a future roadmap aimed to deliver fully electric and autonomous trucks by 2030.

The Fujin & Raijin Vision 2030, named after Japanese gods of nature, focuses on key areas of automation and electromobility.

Demand for parcel delivery is expected to grow 50% by 2030 compared to 2014.To meet this demand, the logistics industry faces significant challenges, including a responsibility to reduce carbon emissions, the growing scale of online commerce, and driver shortages.

UD Trucks believes that innovations in automation and electromobility are key to overcoming these challenges and providing customers with the trucks that fit their needs, a company statement says.

UD Trucks chairman Joachim Rosenberg announced the company’s roadmap at the Embassy of Sweden in Tokyo on April 23.

“When delivering on our promise to provide the trucks and services the world needs today, we have always done things a bit differently from others in our industry.

“As we now look forward, we are convinced that the world needs smart logistics,” Rosenberg says.

The company is already exploring auto pilot and platooning technologies in the near term, and more highly-automated on-road vehicles in the long term.

It is developing technologies such as EV battery systems and connectivity. In Japan, UD Trucks has around 45,000 vehicles connected through its information service, which uses data collected from each vehicle to help improve performance.

The company will conduct demonstrations of autonomous driving and electric drive prototypes throughout 2018, targeting field tests and customer trials ahead of Tokyo Motor Show 2019.

It aims to have vehicles in actual daily operation by 2020. Its goal is full-fledged commercialisation of fully-electric and autonomous trucks by 2030.

UD Trucks was established in Japan in 1935 and became a part of the Volvo Group in 2007. It has a sales network in more than 60 countries worldwide.