NSW Rural Fire Service puts electric Volvo to the test

The New South Wales Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) is taking the Volvo FM Electric for an extended test drive in an effort to understand how low emissions vehicles can be integrated into emergency services fleets in the future.

With an RFS water tanker in tow, the electric prime mover recently tackled a 550 kilometre route from the Glendenning NSW logistics headquarters to the border city of Albury, arriving at the NSW RFS Championships in the suburb of Thurgoona.

The driving team, consisting of Inspector Brendan Doyle, RFS Logistics Manager and RFS Logistics & Transport Supervisor shared driving duties over the route to assess the performance and driveability of the vehicles as well as the heavy vehicle charging experience.

“This drive presented a great opportunity for us to touch, feel and experience an electric prime mover on public roads,” said Mr Doyle.

“It also allows us to consider where a vehicle like this could fill roles within our logistics fleet in the future.”

Over the course of the trip, the truck averaged 88.7 km/h with an energy consumption of 1.24kWh/km.

Required charging time was 120 minutes to complete the 6.2-hour trip with stops made at Goulburn and Tarcutta.

“The driving experience was sensational,” said Mr Duff.

“One of the key takeaways for me was that you could take anyone familiar with an existing Volvo truck and they’d be able to drive this without additional training at all.”

Volvo Group Australia Vice President, Governmental Sales, Cameron Bettany said that there has been a lot of interest in battery electric trucks from fire and emergency services around the country.

“Fire and emergency services are on the front line when it comes to the impact of climate change on our local environment,” Mr Bettany said.

“Many in these services are acutely aware of the need to reduce emissions, not only from a climate perspective, but also from a health and safety perspective for those first responders.

“Emergency services operate in a complex environment and with that a mix of technology types will be required to enable sustainable operational capability” Battery electric trucks are a key part of this mix.

“It’s fantastic to see RFS getting out there and investigating how these vehicles perform in a real-world setting.”

Volvo Trucks Australia offers an electric equivalent for its entire range of diesel-powered vehicles.