Volvo takes aim at vocational trucks with 540-hp VNX launch

SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. — Volvo Trucks North America unveiled the all-new VNX on Wednesday, a vocational and heavy-haul truck built for a segment where Volvo is looking to expand its market reach. Peter Voorhoeve, president of Volvo Trucks North America, put the company’s share of North American vocational sales at 2% to 3%.

The VNX shares an electrical architecture with the long-haul VNL and regional-haul VNR , the result of what Volvo said was a $3 billion investment in product development and manufacturing.

Vocational work makes up about a quarter of the North American truck market, Voorhoeve said at a preview event at Volvo Construction Equipment’s Customer Center. Long haul accounts for half and regional haul for the remaining quarter.

“We don’t really play in that vocational segment. We have like a two or three percent market share,” Voorhoeve said. “In the largest market of the world, apart from China, why would we not play in a segment that we are so rooted in the rest of the world?”

Volvo’s FMX holds about 30% of the vocational market in both Europe and Brazil, he said. In North America, Volvo has sold the VHD since 2000. Voorhoeve said its customers are loyal, but the truck has covered a limited range of applications.

Volvo built the VNX around feedback from VHD owners, its vocational business abroad and the job-site experience of Volvo Construction Equipment, which has built and sold machines in the U.S. for more than 50 years.

“Growth in vocational is a natural next step for Volvo Trucks, right as we’re seeing stable demand for trucks on construction sites, infrastructure projects and industrial builds across the country,” Voorhoeve said in a statement.

Remote steer and a terrain brake

Remote Steer gives an operator control of the VNX from outside the cab at speeds up to 5 mph, Volvo said, aimed at mixers, cranes, vac units and other work that needs precise movement.

“Basically what we’ve done is we’ve made a giant RC truck,” said John Moore, product marketing manager at Volvo Trucks North America. “If you ever try to drive a mixer and back it in real close to a building or where they’re pouring concrete, you pretty much have to have a person to guide you. Remote steer lets a mixer be backed in with one person.”

Terrain Brake holds the truck in place on steep, rocky ground the moment the driver lifts off the accelerator, stopping forward or backward lurches faster than the driver could reach the service brakes. 

A direction-change feature lets drivers switch between forward and reverse without touching the brake. Moore said it targets dump truck drivers who shuttle back and forth all day.

Configurations and powertrain

The VNX comes as a 300 day cab and a 440 with a 42-inch sleeper, each available as a tractor or straight truck, plus a 640 tractor with a 62-inch midroof sleeper. Every model is offered in axle-forward and axle-back configurations, and the heat-treated steel frame rails are rated for 160,000 pounds gross vehicle weight.

The truck runs on Volvo’s D13, rated up to 540 horsepower and 1,950 pound-feet of torque and certified to EPA 2027 emissions standards in all 50 states. Moore said that rating puts the VNX within 60 horsepower of the 600-horsepower big-block engines at the top of the class.

The 2027 D13’s engine brake climbs to 630 braking horsepower, up from 500 and above the engine’s 540-horsepower output.

“Typically engines rate their engine brake the same as their horsepower. This one is different—we have extra braking,” Moore said. That matters on steep downgrades, where service brakes can overheat.

The new I-Shift transmission shifts 30% faster, he said, and comes in 13- and 14-speed versions with crawler gears.

Safety and connectivity

Standard forward pedestrian detection scans from 23 to 230 feet, joined by blind spot detection on both sides and a 360-degree camera. The cab uses one-third more ultra-high-strength steel than Volvo’s legacy vocational trucks. Volvo said standard driver-side curtain airbags make it the only OEM in North America to offer them on a vocational truck.

Every VNX ships with a factory-installed 4G telematics gateway for remote diagnostics and over-the-air programming. Volvo said it will announce the start of sales later this year.

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