VTNA to Begin Production of Redesigned VNR in February
Timeline for VNL Electric Launch Slips
Key Takeaways:
- VTNA plans to begin production of its revamped VNR on Feb. 2, 2026.
- “In general, we see a lull in the market," VTNA President Peter Voorhoeve said.
- The timeline for the VNL Electric has slipped.
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Volvo Trucks North America plans to begin serial production of its overhauled VNR regional haul tractor on Feb. 2, 2026, VTNA President Peter Voorhoeve said Oct. 26 at the American Trucking Associations 2025 Management Conference and Exhibition.
The truck maker opened its order book for the revamped VNR in September.
VTNA relaunched the diesel VNR in March at ATA’s Technology & Maintenance Council Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tenn., declaring a 90% redesign of the previous iteration.
The VNR originally debuted in April 2017, replacing the VNM, which had been around since the 1990s.
“It was a very strong improvement for us in the regional-haul business,” Voorhoeve said of the legacy VNR’s debut in an interview on the sidelines of MCE.
“The VNR was a success for us because of the shorter hood, because of the better turning circle and the visibility around the truck,” he told Transport Topics.
“The VNR is a very good name. It’s also why we didn’t change the name. The demand is good and continues to be good for the new one,” Voorhoeve said.
Volvo Trucks North America launched a revamp of its flagship over-the-road Class 8 VNL tractor Jan. 23, the first major overhaul since a 2017 redesign.(Volvo Trucks North America)
A redesigned VNR is part of a comprehensive overhaul of VTNA’s on-highway tractor portfolio, after the Volvo Group unit unveiled a revamp of its flagship VNL tractor in January 2024. The VNR is the same body-in-white as the VNL but has a different cab position.
Both redesigns are part of why Volvo executives felt confident enough in November 2024 to say they wanted a 25% share of the North American heavy-duty truck market by 2030.
VTNA sister group Mack Trucks also overhauled its on-highway tractor lineup as a component of these ambitions.
Mack and VTNA won a combined 16.9% share of Class 8 retail sales through the first nine months of 2025, according to Wards Intelligence data.
Freight Recession Dampens Ambitions
However, the now three-year-long recession in the North American freight market put a damper on those sales ambitions, so much so that Volvo and Mack cut 1,000 jobs across their U.S. production plants in April, the first of a series of layoffs by North American truck makers.
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There have been no VTNA job cuts since April though, Voorhoeve told TT.
“No, we adapted our capacity relatively early in the year, because we saw demand going in the wrong way,” said Voorhoeve. “Then, since the summer, we’re running our factory at the plant right. There’s no down weeks. There’s no underabsorption. You don’t see closures.”
That doesn’t mean the long-awaited turnaround is here yet, though.
“The current environment is uncertain,” Voorhoeve said during a press conference at MCE. “That’s not where you want to be. I believe Q1, Q2 won’t be too much different.”
“In general, we see a lull in the market. We see order intake significantly lower now than in previous years. That largely is driven by the ongoing freight recession. We’re now in the third year. There’s a lot of uncertainty around tariffs. Around emissions,” Voorhoeve added during the interview.
“People are sitting on their hands. People are waiting. The financial results of larger transport companies are under pressure. So, yes, we’re definitely in the lower end of the cycle for the moment,” he said.
VNL Electric Timeline Slips
The lull also means the timeline for an expected product launch has slipped, said Voorhoeve.
In June 2024, the truck maker offered the North American press corps a sneak peek of a pre-production battery-electric VNL 440 regional-haul semi, a 42-inch midroof sleeper model.
When the truck was unveiled, orders for the VNL Electric were expected to open in the last couple of months of 2025 or at the beginning of 2026.
Volvo debuted a pre-production model of the VNL regional-haul semi. (Keiron Greenhalgh/Transport Topics)
However, Voorhoeve told TT at MCE: “We’re not there yet. So, we have the VNR Electric still and we’re working with that. And we’re looking at the next generation: the VNL Electric. We have not decided exactly on the launch date yet.”
“The speed of transformation, as we like to call it, of course, has slowed down,” he said. “We still believe, though. And you see that there is still demand for zero-emission vehicles, certainly in California, but also in other areas where transport companies have strong sustainability agendas and are executing on those.”
“When we launched the all-new VNL, we told everybody that this is the platform for the future. Be that internal combustion engine, be that electric, be that fuel cell. And we showed then a prototype or concept model of the VNL Electric and we’re still working on that,” he said.
The VNR Electric reached 20 million miles of on-the-road customer operations, the OEM said Oct. 25.
More than 700 Volvo VNR Electric trucks are now operating across the United States and Canada, VTNA said at MCE.
“The Volvo Trucks North America of today is not the Volvo Trucks North America of 10 years ago,” Voorhoeve said during the briefing at MCE.
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