"The Swedish truck-maker is aiming for half its European sales in 2030 to be trucks powered by batteries or hydrogen fuel cells"
"About 300 high-performance hydrogen refueling points would be needed in Europe by 2025"
I'm sure there's enough of a market in Europe for different trucks — there's already different designs and different fuel preferences (diesel/gasoline).
Absolutely. Look at the heavy buy-in on diesel automobiles, and they sure weren't shy about subsidies/regulations to favor them.
Yeah, that government intervention worked out well :p
Volvo is a Chinese-owned company. While the company is headquartered and led in Sweden, it is safe to assume that the Chinese market is a strong consideration in everything they do.
Volvo Cars is owned directly by Geely, but is not a subsidiary of AB Volvo. Which is probably where your confusion is coming from.
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volvo they remain an independent company with Geely as their second largest shareholder at 8.2%.
More complete breakdown here: https://www.volvogroup.com/en/investors/the-volvo-share/owne...
They are independent companies, but they share an owner.
It's probably fair to contrast the EU vs. the USA for this. Given the geographic and political differences, I can see where a European market for trucks might be sufficient for the manufacturers to fund development efforts. I should have been clear that I was thinking primarily of the US, living here and all.
It would be interesting to have a better overview on freight handling in the rest of the world. China tends to be left out of these discussions and I can't imagine wide swathes of Asia or Africa changing anytime soon.