Page 26: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2022)

Interview

Fredrik Högberg

President of Volvo Penta North America

As he takes the helm leading Volvo Penta

North America, Fredrik

Högberg discusses the tech and the talent that will drive Volvo Penta in the marine business in 2023 and beyond.

By Greg Trauthwein

All photos courtesy Volvo Penta tially giving the customer an unprecedented experience.

Fredrik, to start, can you provide a by-the-numbers look at Volvo Penta footprint in the marine business? When you look at the team you lead in Americas, what do you see as the primary strengths?

I’ve been part of the Volvo Group for a long time, and Volvo

Penta has great longevity, since 1907, with a network foot- There are many strengths, but to start, it’s a relentless focus on print of roughly 3,500 dealers in 130 countries. Volvo Penta the customers; that’s number one. This is throughout the entire has wholly owned plants in Vara (Sweden) for manufacturing organization, it’s inherent, you can feel it in the walls. Second, our marine D4/D6 and heavy-duty engine ranges and Lexing- and I’m still learning because this is a fairly complex industry, ton, Tennessee, for manufacturing gasoline engines. Volvo overall we have a very good understanding what it takes to be

Penta launched the industry’s ? rst fully integrated Assisted successful in the marine commercial arena. [Another strength

Docking system in 2021. We also pull from the greater Volvo is] the Volvo Penta organization here in North America, a

Group which is about 95,000 people and roughly $44 billion strong network with the power centers that has support capa- in revenue. [The big number though is zero], as the journey bilities and functions for our customers. From a port perspec- that we have set ourself out on is to reach net zero carbon tive, we have a very good footprint both in Europe and the US emissions by 2040. And while I can’t go into details when it when it comes to port availability and port logistics.

comes to numbers, we have a lot of pilot programs and new

As you’re coming into your new post, what are your top initiatives with renewable fuels and different drive lines that priorities in the coming 12 to 24 months?

will bring us into the future.

Right now the top priorities are supply chain issues, logistic issues, clearing bottlenecks in order to deliver to our custom-

From what I understand, much of your career with the ers. That is priority number one, two and three for sure. Then company has been spent on the truck side of the busi- we need to continue to work on what we call transformation, ness. Can you provide insight on why you saw a move to whether that be drive lines or human interfaces, connectivity, the marine side a good one at this time?

Starting with my career in the company, I’ve been with the etc. to make sure that we have the right solutions for today and truck brands for 28 years on four continents. This job opened, for the future. I mentioned before the power centers, making and it was very appealing to see what we can bring from a sure that we push the knowledge that sits in Chesapeake, Va. truck perspective into the marine sector to further strengthen and in Sweden out to our dealers and power centers. I think uptime, customer focus, connectivity, reliability, and essen- that’s key to get closer to the customers, because as the techni- 26 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • November 2022

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