VDL Groep has secured an order for 80 automated guided vehicles (AGVs) from PSA Singapore, strengthening its position in the AGV market.
A minimum of 80 electric and autonomous vehicles will be supplied to the port operator before 2023 to be utilised in container logistics at PSA’s Tuas Port.
Frans van Dommelen, director of VDL Containersystemen, said: “This order is the ideal showcase for our role in port areas, because we also use these electric vehicles to reduce emissions from logistics movements in the port.”
PSA’s upcoming terminals at its Tuas Port will have an annual capacity of 65m teu once fully completed in 2040 and the AGVs are expected to transport containers 24 hours a day, seven days a week when the first berth becomes operational in 2021.
The VDL AGVs to be supplied are 100% electric and self-driving with a maximum lifting weight of 65 tonnes, a maximum speed of 25 km/h and a length of 15m.
In 2015, the manufacturer delivered two AGV prototypes to PSA Singapore and Karel Smits, manager of VDL Automated Vehicles, said that this laid the basis for the new order PSA found the vehicles’ performance satisfactory.
VDL is the European market leader in the electrification of heavy-duty mobility, such as buses, e-trucks and AGVs and this order has helped it to work on the internationalisation of its commercial activities.
The manufacturer will expand its local service organisation in Singapore, where part of the final assembly of PSA’s AGVs will take place, as the order accounts for 100,000 hours of work.
