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Lars Stenqvist, chief technology officer of the Volvo Group. | Photo Courtesy of Lars Stenqvist

Lars Stenqvist has eggs in a bunch of different baskets. As chief technology officer of the Volvo Group, he helped bring about the company's first vehicle made with steel produced using fossil-free hydrogen power. He's also working on trucks fueled by hydrogen and batteries — but also still putting resources into regular combustion engines, despite the company's goal of having all its vehicles be "fossil fuel free enabled" by 2040.

We spoke with Stenqvist at last month's World Economic Forum, ahead of the vehicle's unveiling. Volvo plans to use the low-carbon steel in its heavy-duty battery electric trucks. It's also working on fuel cell electric trucks with a competitor, Daimler — but after that, Stenqvist said, he plans to “beat the shit out of Daimler.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Is your main focus EVs? 

It's not only electric vehicles, because we believe that our industry has such a range of customer applications. There is not one single silver bullet for us to use. We believe that we need three technologies in parallel: Battery electric vehicles — we are already in production with better electric trucks, better electric buses, excavators and wheel loaders stonewalling.

We are also investing heavily into fuel cell electric vehicles. The sweet spot for that technology is a little bit more towards the long range: Because you don't need to recharge, refuel, you can operate days up to 1,000 kilometers.

But we also believe that there is a future for internal combustion. And so we are not decreasing our efforts when it comes to research and development on internal combustion engines. We are also investing into hydrogen — to burn green hydrogen into a combustion engine, which per definition would be CO2-free, but it will not be completely free from nitrogen oxides.

How does Volvo deal with the fact that not everyone can afford to go green?

There's no reason to believe that in the long run, when it's a volume game, that there will not be cost parity from a total cost of ownership perspective. Maybe you will have more expensive vehicles, but you have lower running costs.

How do you deal with politicians? 

[We hope] that they are not banning technologies, but that they are clear on what they want to achieve, and that they let my engineers come up with a solution.

We are very dependent on getting an increased production of green electricity, and by that the possibility to produce green hydrogen. Otherwise, this is just a fake from society from a planning perspective.

So I'm not that worried when it comes to us providing the right vehicles, I'm more worried about whether societies really manage to increase green electricity capacity, and green hydrogen. I think that is the most important for us as citizens of the planet.

But there are uncertainties in charging infrastructure. So that's why I think that it's good to have possibilities to balance with hydrogen, for example. In many regions, it will be very beneficial to balance the two. So I think it is wise today to go broad, maybe we can close off some technologies going forward. But today, I wouldn't recommend anyone to go too narrow, because a lot can happen.

How easy is it for you to adjust supply? Say, if you see one jurisdiction is leaning toward the batteries or the legislation doesn't go the way you want, how quickly can you reorient?

Quickly, because we are very, very global. If you take it from a truck perspective, it’s one global platform that we're using for our different brands. Volvo Trucks is a global brand for Mack Trucks in North America, Australia; for Renault trucks in Europe and Africa. We can be very flexible on this.

How are you measuring your manufacturing emissions footprint?

This topic is accelerating extremely fast. Two years ago, this was not really on the agenda, today the knowledge base, internally and with my suppliers, my partners, is growing.

You start from a weight perspective, from steel, from iron. We have exactly the same discussions with our suppliers, our partners when it comes to the use of plastics. A lot is happening now in the area of materials, and of course, in our own productions.

We are committed to science-based targets: scope one, two, and three. Now when we have done the homework, we have come to the conclusion that if we don't fix logistics, which is part of their [customers’] scope, one and two, importantly my scope three, then we are smoked, simply, everyone has to fix logistics.

And that means that all of a sudden the science-based target initiative turns from isolated company commitments to a commitment across the value chain. Because if we don't solve it together, we will not solve it.

Volvo is looking to use fossil-free steel in its vehicles. | Photo Courtesy of Volvo Group

Safety is Volvo’s core brand: Do you face scrutiny on the safety of recycled materials?

If you're looking for example at surface steel and compare it to solid base steel, stainless steel, it's a process change, but from a property perspective, it’s the same. So when we produce the first vehicle, in our plant producing the wheel loaders, they could utilize exactly the same process parameters in the press lines, in the welding lines, in the painting lines.

And this is a huge advantage when we go forward. Because today, the supply of fossil-free steel is very, very limited. Meaning that we will get the batch, but we will then we will use it in parallel with fossil-based steel.

We need to do exactly the same kind of research, the same kind of testing when it comes to all kinds of materials before we introduce anything because safety is, as you said, in our DNA. So far, we have no reason to believe that there is any kind of compromise when it comes to safety [by] going in this direction.

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