VOLVO TRUCKS MAKES ITS BELGIAN ASSEMBLY PLANT CARBON DIOXIDE-FREE
01 March 2006 - Volvo Truck Ltd

Ghent, Belgium, entirely free of carbon dioxide.

Three wind-power generating stations will be built beside the plant along with a new biofuel production facility to supply electricity and heating without making any net contribution to the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

“As one of the world’s largest manufacturers of trucks, it is our responsibility to handle carbon dioxide emissions in the best possible way and to reduce their effects,” says Lars Mårtensson, Environmental Affairs director at Volvo Trucks.

The Volvo Trucks assembly plant in Ghent, Volvo Europa Truck NV, currently relies mainly on natural gas for its heating. In order to make the plant free of carbon dioxide emissions, it will switch entirely to environmentally compatible energy sources. This energy will be produced by the new wind-power generating stations and the new biofuel facility being constructed by Belgian firm Electrabel. The project will be implemented in 2007.

For some time now, Volvo Europa Truck NV has been working with a variety of projects aimed at reducing energy consumption in the plant. The implementation of carbon dioxide-free operations in Ghent is one of Volvo’s goals in the company’s drive to make all its production plants carbon dioxide-free. Last year, the Volvo Trucks Tuve plant in Sweden became the first such plant.

With 1,500 employees, the Volvo Trucks plant in Gent makes the Volvo FH, Volvo FM and Volvo FL truck models. In 2005 the factory produced 30,400 vehicles, mostly for export to other markets throughout Europe.

www.volvo.com

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