Caqital Equipment News October 2018

TRANSPORT

UD Trucks takes inspiration for its innovation roadmap from the gods of wind and thunder, as depicted in the famous gold- embossed Japanese folding screen, “Fujin and Raijin”.

towards fully-electric, autonomous trucks

As the eTrucks revolution continues to gather pace, UD Trucks has announced the launch of its Fujin & Raijin. Vision 2030 – an innovation roadmap which aims to deliver a variety of solutions for smart logistics, including fully-electric and autonomous trucks towards 2030. The roadmap focuses on key areas of automation and electromobility to address the challenges of a rapidly-changing world, writes Munesu Shoko .

A t a recent visit to South Africa, UD Trucks’ executives from Japan, led by Chairman Joachim Rosenberg, provided a glimpse of the truck maker’s product launch roadmap towards 2030. The company shared some of the strides being made in key areas of electromobility and automation. Globally, the drive towards electric and automated trucks is gathering pace, and connectivity and digitalisation are

the key enablers. In a report recently published by Frost & Sullivan, Executive Analysis of Electric Truck Market, Forecast to 2025 , annual sales for electric trucks are projected t o rise to 2,25-million units by 2025, from 61 000 units in 2017. As far as eTrucks are concerned, Rosenberg reasons that key factors such as a growing shift towards electric powertrains, incentive programmes, firming up of emission

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS OCTOBER 2018 20