Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) is delivering on quarrying-suited machine productivity and efficiency, alternative power solutions, and company and customer-based sustainability. Volvo CE president Melker Jernberg spoke to Aggregates Business Editor Guy Woodford about the Swedish off-highway equipment giant’s evolution.
Melker Jernberg is upbeat as he talks to Aggregates Business on the afternoon of the second day of bauma 2025 in Munich, Germany (7-13 April). A couple of hours earlier, at a well-attended exhibition press conference, Volvo CE’s president had delighted in counting down to pressing a button, triggering the fall of a giant curtain to unveil the A30 Electric, one of the world’s first serial-production battery-electric articulated haulers of its size class. The groundbreaking Volvo CE machine will reach selected European customers in 2026 alongside the new A40 Electric articulated hauler.
Jernberg says the pioneering A30 Electric demonstrates Volvo CE’s commitment to sustainable change, further shown by the major off-highway machinery manufacturer’s first-ever all-electric bauma lineup. The A30 Electric and A40 Electric are ideal machines for quarry and aggregates production sites, and Jernberg is quick to respond when asked how important those customers are to Volvo CE.
“Quarry and Agg is one of our prime segments. I see more and more a drive towards making quarries more efficient, not just in the machines used but in the hardware and software used on-site, and in the [aftermarket] services and digitalised support offered [by equipment manufacturers and their dealer distributors].
“Each quarry is a company run by a manager and their team. If we see a quarry manager, we know that the quarry, like every quarry, won’t just have Volvo CE machines, so we need to work out how we can help that quarry manager run their quarry more efficiently.”
Volvo CE enjoyed a busy first quarter of this year with the rollout of its new generation articulated haulers, including introducing a brand new A50, alongside several local launches of the latest range of excavators in Asian markets. Delivering on its digitalisation transformation, Volvo CE also partnered with software company Unicontrol to integrate its 3D machine control technology into Volvo excavators.
Another recent range launch was a new generation of wheeled loaders, designed for improved productivity, operator comfort, and safety.
For 70 years, Volvo CE has been at the forefront of wheeled loader technology. These innovative new generation wheeled loaders are engineered to enhance productivity and efficiency across various applications, including rehandling, material handling, quarrying, waste and recycling, and earthmoving.
The five revamped models are the L150, L180, L200 High Lift, L220, and L260. In addition to a fresh design, these hard-working and truly versatile machines now have even faster cycle times, exceptional performance, and unmatched operator comfort. They are packed with intelligent solutions to help customers maximise productivity and profitability.
Volvo CE unveiled 80 new or next-generation machines in full-year 2024 and Q1 2025, 40% of its 200-strong product lineup. “We have launched new excavators, wheeled loaders and haulers. Our dealer distributors can sell one new Volvo CE machine and then be able to offer other new ones to the same customer. We can meet every Quarry & Agg customer’s needs with our machines and service solutions.”
While Volvo CE has continued to innovate by rolling out new products and services, the market decline impacted its first-quarter 2025 earnings.
Global sales dropped 8% in the first quarter of the year for Volvo CE, compared to the historically high levels of Q1 2024, in line with the industry’s overall decline. While South America and Asia saw a growth in their markets, lower volumes in Europe and North America are behind the shortfall, largely due to increased geopolitical and market uncertainty.
Volvo CE has maintained a steady performance during this period, while still investing in new technologies for its customers everywhere. Though machine sales are down for the first quarter, the company has seen a rise in service sales, demonstrating the increasing relevance of service solutions, and an overall increase in orders and deliveries.
Speaking on the release of the first-quarter 2025 trading update, Jernberg, who has been Volvo CE president since January 2018, said: “As a global company, we are understandably affected by these turbulent times, but we have shown resilience in the face of uncertainty and maintained a solid performance today, while moving in the right direction for tomorrow. Our industry’s transformation may be slower than we would like. However, our commitment remains strong as we continue to invest in building a better world for all, as demonstrated by our pioneering 100% zero-emission lineup at bauma.”
In Q1 2025, Volvo CE’s net sales decreased by 8% to SEK 21,117 million (SEK 22,877 million in Q1 2024). When adjusted for currency movements, net sales of machines decreased by 10%, and service sales increased by 2%. Compared with Q1 2024, Volvo CE stated that a negative brand, market, and product mix was partly offset by increased volumes, lower material costs, and an improved service business.
For the first quarter, Volvo CE noted that the total machine market was flat compared to the previous year, with Asia, including China, and South America growing while Europe and North America contracted. Compared to the historically high levels of the first quarter of 2024, Europe declined 18% as end customer demand remained saturated. North America dropped 14% due to what Volvo CE said was “fleet repositioning and market outlook uncertainty”.
Brazil mainly drove growth in South America (12%) and improved business sentiment in Argentina and Chile. The Chinese market improved by 42% based on governmental policies to stimulate the real estate and construction segments. Outside China, the market was up slightly (1%) in Asia, thanks to the growth in Indonesia and South Korea.
The challenging Q1 2025 global off-highway equipment market continued the previous year’s difficult trading environment in several major regions. “In Europe, 2024 was a tough year. I think the Quarry and Agg segment was down about 25 to 30%,” says Jernberg.
During Volvo CE’s bauma 2025 press conference, Jernberg was joined on stage by Roger Alm, president of Volvo Trucks, and Anna Müller, president of Volvo Penta. Bill Law, Volvo CE’s head of corporate communications, asked the trio whether battery-electric was the “silver bullet” that would one day power all off-highway machinery.
“The answer is clearly ‘No’. The [sustainability] transformation is underway. Unfortunately, it is slower than expected and needed, but we have decided to lead the way regarding sustainable transport, construction, and infrastructure solutions. To make change happen, we need different technology solutions,” answered Jernberg.
Asked by Law to specify which alternative machine power solutions Volvo CE is investing in, Jernberg said: “We are investing heavily in a number of technology tracts, like battery-electric solutions, including charging. We continue to invest heavily in ICE (internal combustion engine) technology, including optimising ICEs for renewable fuels, as we believe it will continue to play a really big role in our industry. We understand all customers are going at different speeds in their transformation journey and we have sustainable solution wherever they are. We are also investing heavily in hydrogen fuel cell technology.”
In April 2024, Aggregates Business reported on the Volvo HX04, the world’s first prototype hydrogen fuel cell articulated hauler, being tested in various customer applications as part of Volvo CE’s research and development around hydrogen technology.
The Volvo HX04 has a 20-tonne payload, while its four high-pressure hydrogen tanks (at 700 bars) allow a working time of around four hours. Power to the wheels comes from three electric motors mounted in each of the three axles, which means the truck does away with the need for a torque converter and driveshafts. Instead of a conventional driveline, heavily protected cables run through the articulation joint.
The Volvo HX04 prototype was born out of a research project between 2018 and 2022 funded by FFI, a national collaboration between the Swedish Innovation Agency VINNOVA, the Swedish Energy Agency and the Swedish Transport Administration to support strategic research, innovation and development of sustainable vehicles. Much of the development and construction of the six-wheeled Volvo HX04 took place at Volvo CE’s facilities in Braås, Sweden.
Engineers at the Eskilstuna Technology Centre in Sweden contributed software development and knowledge from their fuel cell test laboratory for the project. The results of the Volo HX04 test phase were expected to generate important information about the possibilities offered by hydrogen and fuel cells as Volvo CE continues its research for future product development programmes.
“While there is an infrastructure question and issue around [on-highway] hydrogen fuel cell-powered cars and trucks, if we believe we have a good [hydrogen fuel cell-powered, off-highway machine] solution on-site, the supporting infrastructure will be less of an issue,” says Jernberg, adding that the first hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered off-highway machines were likely to appear on job sites by the end of this decade. “We could do it now from a technology perspective, but the demand from the customer has to be there.”
Diesel-powered loaders and haulers for quarrying and aggregate sector applications are still popular in many regional markets. What’s Jernberg’s message to industry customers who prefer them to electric or other alternative power-based models? “Buy them. We appreciate that some countries are at different stages of their development on this. I will say, though, that we have a task as humans to hand over the planet. We think what we do around electric machines and sustainability will benefit our business over time. We want to take the lead in this area.
“A potential customer talking to one of our dealer distributors may want to buy a new haulier but has not considered an electric version. If they haven’t done a TCO [Total Cost of Ownership] calculation, we will urge them to try an A40 Electric, for instance, and do that calculation. Even if a customer wants a combustion engine-powered machine, it doesn’t mean it must be dirty.”
Increased process automation is another big topic in the quarrying industry, and it has been a key area of Volvo CE and wider Volvo Group research and development in recent years. In 2018, Volvo CE partnered with Skanska to create and run the Vikan Kross Electric Quarry near Gothenburg, Sweden. A key part of the initial 10-week trial to enhance the goal of carbon emission-free quarrying was using eight Volvo HX-02 autonomous, battery-electric load carriers to transport material from the primary mobile crusher to the secondary static crusher.
Jernberg explains that the successful Vikan Kross Electric Quarry project was the catalyst for creating a new Volvo Group business, Volvo Autonomous Solutions. In 2021, Volvo Autonomous Solutions (VAS) and Holcim Switzerland partnered to jointly test and further develop the use of autonomous electric haulers in a limestone quarry. Speaking at the time, the two companies emphasised their dedication to seeking safe, efficient, innovative, and sustainable infrastructure and transport solutions.
“VAS is now testing long-distance, on-highway hub-to-hub driverless trucks in Texas,“ says Jernberg. “This is a very interesting development.”
Given the company’s ongoing intensive product development work and laudable commitment to sustainability, which includes using low-carbon emission steel for serial production of all articulated hauliers built in its Braås, Sweden facility, Volvo CE is one big and very interesting development.
