Volvo Group announces agreement with Rio Tinto

Volvo Group and Rio Tinto will partner on low-carbon materials supply and pilot sustainable autonomous hauling solutions.

The two companies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to create a strategic partnership where Rio Tinto will supply responsibly sourced low-carbon products and solutions to Volvo Group and the companies will work towards decarbonising Rio Tinto’s operations through piloting Volvo Group’s sustainable autonomous hauling solutions.

Volvo Group, as it sees it, will take a great step forward through the partnership in its ambition towards a net-zero value chain, with sustainable sourcing of raw materials such as lithium, low carbon aluminium, copper, and metallics.

The multi-materials partnership will allow Rio Tinto, a leading global mining and metals company, to progress sustainability commitments in its operations and supply chains.

“We are eager to partner with Rio Tinto, a true collaboration aiming to accelerate our ambitions towards a fossil-free, decarbonised future,” said Martin Lundstedt, Volvo President and Chief Executive Officer.

“By addressing the full value chain, from the use of low-carbon materials in our products, to providing our customers with sustainable autonomous hauling solutions, we can contribute to a better and more sustainable future,” he said.

The companies will work together to reportedly strengthen the supply of responsibly sourced low-carbon materials such as RenewAlTM aluminium, aluminium produced using the ELYSISTM zero-carbon smelting technology, Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) certified aluminium and Copper Mark certified copper, and explore product development opportunities such as the supply of lithium for batteries.

Volvo Autonomous Solutions is based on Transport as a Service (TaaS) and includes a vehicle purpose-built for autonomous driving, a virtual driver, required infrastructure, operations and uptime support as well as a cloud solution that controls the transport system and manages logistics flows.

The solutions developed by Volvo Autonomous Solutions are tailor-made for each customers’ needs and intended to make their operations more safe, productive and sustainable.

Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm said he looked forward to partnering with Volvo in a collaboration to deliver sustainable outcomes from the mine to the showroom floor.

“We will be working together to support the decarbonisation of Rio Tinto’s operations and deliver low-carbon materials for use in Volvo’s innovative product range, including electric and autonomous vehicles,” he said.