Volvo Group sees opportunities in green transport: paper

BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Swedish automaker Volvo group saw big opportunities from CHINA's embracing of environmentally friendly transportation technologies and services, CHINA Daily reported Wednesday.

Chinese companies are shifting their focus from pure upfront costs to a more sustainable life-cycle-cost perspective, which makes them more willing to embrace highly efficient and environmentally reliable products, and this offers good opportunities for Volvo group, company president and CEO Martin Lundstedt was quoted as saying by the paper.

According to him, the company now has more than 850,000 connected trucks, construction equipment and buses globally, representing the world's largest number of connected commercial vehicles.

Connected vehicles refer to those equipped with Internet access, and usually also with a wireless local area network, allowing the vehicles to share Internet access and data with other devices both inside and outside the vehicles.

In 2020, such vehicles are expected to reach more than 1 million, driven by growth in countries including CHINA, the world's largest market for heavy-duty trucks, Lundstedt said.

"When we look at CHINA's transport industry, we can see even greater potential in technology innovation for sustainable development," he said.

Currently, the Gothenburg-based company is striving to tap into CHINA's booming e-commerce sector which is driving the entire transport system forward and resulting in high demand for punctuality and reliability, the senior executive added.

Amid the Chinese market's growing enthusiasm for self-driving technologies, Volvo has also tested its autonomous trucks in Beijing, hoping to apply them to local harbors, given that seven of the top 10 busiest ports in the world are located in the country, according to the paper.