Volvo FH16 Review

Volvo’s big-power prime mover, built in Brisbane and now running a 17-litre engine. What the 600, 700 and 780hp ratings actually change, and what to check on a used one.

The Volvo FH16 is the high-output end of Volvo’s heavy-duty range: the same cab family as the FH, with a larger engine aimed at high gross combination mass work. In Australia it is assembled at Volvo Group Australia’s Wacol plant in Brisbane, alongside the FH, FM and FMX.

The buyers are operators whose combinations are heavy enough that a 13-litre engine becomes the limiting factor — B-doubles at high mass, road trains, AB-triples, livestock and grain work, and heavy haulage. It is not a truck you buy for a single trailer at 42.5 tonnes.

The engine, and the 2024 change

The current FH16 runs Volvo’s D17: a 17.3-litre inline six certified to Euro 6, which replaced the 16-litre engine and shares its basic architecture. Volvo opened Australian orders in July 2024. All three ratings are compatible with HVO renewable diesel, and Volvo has stated the 700hp rating will also run on 100 per cent biodiesel.

Volvo has described the 780 as Australia’s most powerful on-highway truck and as the highest-horsepower FH16 it has offered here. That is the manufacturer’s claim rather than ours. Independently, the FH16 780 was named 2025 International Truck of the Year Australasia, announced at the Brisbane Truck Show in May 2025.

Driveline and ratings

Transmission is I-Shift, a 12-speed splitter-and-range gearbox with automated shifting, and an I-Shift with crawler gears is available for starting under extreme mass. There is no manual option to consider on these trucks, which simplifies used buying considerably but concentrates risk in one component.

Rear axle choice matters more than most buyers realise. The FH16 is offered with an RTS2370A single-reduction axle and an RTH2610B hub-reduction axle, both rated to 3,800Nm input torque, with the hub-reduction unit carrying a 100 tonne standard GCW approval. Volvo states GCW up to 325 tonnes is possible with heavy haulage approval on certain chassis and powertrain combinations, which is a build-specific approval and not a general rating.

Cab options are the Low Sleeper, Sleeper, Globetrotter XL and Globetrotter XXL, and up to four factory-fitted axles are available for an 8x4 twin-steer.

What it is like to run at mass

Fleet HV News road-tested an 8x4 twin-steer FH16 780 on an AB-triple grain combination at 106.8 tonnes gross, over roughly 700 kilometres in about ten hours. It recorded 87.6L/100km, or 1.14km/litre, against 1.3km/litre it had previously seen on the same route with a different truck. That is one run in one set of conditions, but it is a real number at a real mass, which is more than most published figures.

The tester’s substantive observation was about torque delivery rather than peak power: the truck would pull down to around 1,000rpm and then shift once and keep going, rather than needing a handful of gears on every rise. At high mass that is the difference that shows up in trip time and driver fatigue, not the horsepower figure.

Where the money goes after purchase

The FH16 is an electronics-dense truck. EBS, electronic stability control, Volvo Dynamic Steering, the camera monitor system and I-See topography-based cruise are all part of the proposition, and all of them are diagnosed and repaired through Volvo’s own tooling. Budget for dealer diagnostic time rather than assuming your local workshop can chase a fault.

Against that, local assembly matters. Volvo has built more than 80,000 trucks at Wacol since 1972 and states the plant employs over 800 people in production plus about 50 engineers, working with more than 90 local component suppliers. Australian-specification parts are a normal order, not a special one.

The practical caution is geography. Volvo’s service network follows the freight corridors and capital cities. If you operate remote, identify your nearest authorised service point and confirm what it can actually do on a D17 before you buy, because a truck that has to be recovered several hundred kilometres for a sensor fault is an expensive truck regardless of what it cost.

What to watch for on a used one

• Which engine it has. Trucks from mid-2024 onward may be D17; earlier FH16s run the 16-litre engine the D17 replaced. Parts, tune and service history differ, so confirm from the VIN and build data rather than the badge.
• I-Shift condition. Have the clutch and the gearbox actuator assessed, and get the transmission fault history read. This is the single component where a used FH16 can turn expensive quickly.
• Rear axle type and GCW approval against your intended mass. A truck sold out of a single-trailer fleet may not be plated or geared for what you want to do.
• Aftertreatment history on Euro 6 trucks. SCR, EGR and DPF service records, AdBlue quality practices, and any history of derates.
• Kingpin and turntable wear, drive tyre condition across both axles, and suspension air bags and ride height sensors.
• Cab electronics. Test the camera monitor system, the dynamic steering, adaptive cruise and every dash function on the test drive. These are not cheap to put right.
• Documentation to demand: the full Volvo service history, the chassis specification sheet, a diagnostic report with stored and historical fault codes, and a PPSR search.

Who it suits and who it doesn’t

It suits high-mass work where the engine is the constraint, and it suits fleets that value driver retention — the cab is a large part of what you are paying for, and Volvo’s road tests and independent reviews consistently return to that point. It suits operators already inside the Volvo service network.

It does not suit single-trailer general freight. You will pay for capability you never use, in purchase price, in tare weight and in fuel. A 13-litre truck is the right answer for that work.

It does not suit an operator who wants to do their own major driveline work, or who runs a long way from a Volvo dealer. And it does not suit a buyer who wants a mechanically simple truck: the FH16’s strengths are systems, and systems need diagnostics.

Resale and what holds value

Volvo was second in Australian heavy-duty sales in 2025 with 2,326 units on T-Mark figures, so this is a well-represented brand with an established used market — but the FH16 specifically is a smaller pool than the FH, because fewer operators need it.

What that means for you as a buyer is that the used FH16 market is thinner and more spec-sensitive than the used FH market. A high-mass-approved 8x4 with the right axles will find a buyer readily; an oddly specified 6x4 at 600hp competes directly against cheaper 13-litre trucks and is harder to move.

We do not publish resale percentages, because we have not found Australian data on this model we would stand behind. What we do publish is what dealers are currently asking, which is the only number that helps you negotiate today.