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How quiet is a city where traffic is exclusively electric? This will be demonstrated by the Volvo Group when the Volvo Ocean Race arrives in Volvo’s home town Gothenburg from June 14–21. The Volvo Group will focus on raising sustainability issues and presenting the latest innovations.
At the entrance to the area, visitors to the Volvo Ocean Race will meet an urban environment where all traffic is exclusively electric. Volvo’s electrified buses will operate between Nordstan and Frihamnen and Volvo’s electrified trucks will transport freight within the event area and then they will beam together in the entrance.
“This is the first time these products are being shown together, but the most striking impact will be from an almost noiseless urban environment, which visitors will experience before entering the actual event area,” says Kina Wileke, Executive Vice President, Group Communication at the Volvo Group.
Ocean Summit is one of the major activities in the Volvo Ocean Race week, and is a global platform for discussing how to reduce plastic waste in our oceans. Speakers in Gothenburg include former Minister for Foreign Affairs Jan Eliasson, Minister for the Environment Karolina Skog and Dee Caffari, skipper of the boat Turn the Tide on Plastic. The Volvo Group’s CEO Martin Lundstedt and Volvo Cars’ President Håkan Samuelsson will participate in a panel discussion on the necessity for the business community to create commitment for cleaner oceans and collaboration to beat plastic pollution.
“The main theme for this year’s Volvo Ocean Race has been sustainability and through our seven Ocean Summits we would like not just to highlight the issue of plastic in our oceans, we would also like to bring about real change,” says Kina Wileke.
The Volvo Group will also have a large exhibition where the Group will demonstrate connected, autonomous and electric vehicles. At one part of the exhibition, the Lab, visitors will be able to test the technology in many of Volvo’s innovations and to build an autonomous mini-vehicle or drive a truck and an excavator in the simulator.
“During race week, we will be showing a modern and innovative company to the residents of Gothenburg and, at the same time, provide insight into the solutions we envisage for sustainable transportation of the future,” says Kina Wileke.
