Ivan Branco, head of information management, artificial intelligence and analytics at Volvo Trucks Operations, said in an interview with the Cardano Foundation that the project is an in-house exploration to simplify cross-border transactions. Branco stated that they are exploring with certain transportation suppliers whether they can establish a closed environment with a purpose-built cryptocurrency for transactions between the material supplier, the transportation supplier, and the company itself.
Rather than creating a publicly traded cryptocurrency, the experiment focused on a closed circle connecting Volvo with material and transportation suppliers. The company did not disclose the technical design of the token, which blockchain network it used, or whether the test involved transactions of real economic value.
Volvo Group is also examining blockchain for supply chain records and product traceability. Branco noted the difficulty of tracking the country of origin of parts, as products pass through multiple suppliers before reaching the company. This monitoring becomes critical when it comes to sanctions and trade restrictions, according to the executive.
Branco cited the European Union's request not to send goods to Russia during the Russia-Ukraine process, and said that the company could be held responsible if the goods were resold through importers and reached Russia. A shared blockchain can reduce the need to compare information across separate systems while giving participating companies access to records that are more difficult to alter. The project can also support product tracking in areas such as Digital Product Passport and remanufacturing, which are expected to become widespread in Europe.
Volvo Group has not announced plans to launch cryptocurrency to the public or roll out the system across all its operations. The initiative remains an in-house discovery and has not reached industrial-scale use. Branco also touched on barriers to enterprise blockchain adoption, such as integration with existing systems, scalability, maintenance, and limited understanding of the technology within the company.
However, Volvo's relationship with blockchain goes back a long way. The group's sister company, Volvo Cars, has used blockchain more extensively since 2019, particularly in monitoring cobalt in electric vehicle batteries. The company worked with supply chain technology firm Circulor to track whether cobalt came from conflict- or child labor-related sources. A similar practice later extended to the Swedish electric vehicle company Polestar. The company-specific cryptocurrency experiment differs by going beyond material tracking and focusing on transactions and shared records between companies in the same supply network.