Volta Trucks accelerates models and production

Building on the success of the Volta Zero – the first purpose-built full-electric 16-tonne commercial vehicle designed for inner-city last mile deliveries – Volta Trucks plans to expand its product portfolio with three additional variants in the Medium-Duty class.

With Volta Zero models available in the 7.5-tonne, 12-tonne, 16-tonne and 19-tonne weight categories.

The 16-tonne Volta Zero will be the first vehicle delivered, with pilot fleet trucks built by the end of 2021, and series production starting around 12 months afterwards. This vehicle is currently in the engineering development phase, with early prototype testing due to start shortly.

Production of the 16-tonne vehicle will be closely followed by the largest 19-tonne and mid-size 12-tonne variants in 2023. A Pilot Fleet of the smaller 7.5-tonne vehicles is expected to be launched for customer trials in the same year, with production commencing in late 2024. These later vehicles are currently in the early design development phase.

With the company’s clear focus on best-in-class vehicle safety with features for the driver and the surrounding ecosystem, all trucks will adopt the innovative low-seat central driving position with a glasshouse-style cab. This offers 220-degrees of vision.

Also, like the 16-tonne vehicle, all variants will be designed with optimised payloads, offering fleet managers the opportunity of using a reduced number of larger Volta Zero vehicles.

The Volta Zero was launched in Europe in September 2020 and since its introduction, Volta says it has been enthusiastically welcomed by fleet managers and city legislators alike, with market demand extending way beyond the initial London and Paris launch markets.

As an example, at the end of 2020, Volta Trucks announced what was believed to be Europe’s single largest purchase of full-electric large commercial vehicles with the sale of 1000 Volta Zeros to Petit Forestier, Europe’s largest refrigerated commercial rental fleet.

The order book had swelled to $260M by January 2021 and continues growing on the back of increasing customer interest.

Given the strength of market demand for the 16-tonne Volta Zero, Volta Trucks will accelerate its market entry with a Europe-first strategy, followed by US and Asian cities.

Volta Trucks expects to introduce the Volta Zero in all its four weight variants across all its core markets. Given the significant market demand for full-electric commercial vehicles, driven by customers' needs and regulation, Volta Trucks targets to sell more than 27,000 units per year by the end of 2025, with volumes increasing further in the following years.

Demand has also been accelerated by Volta Trucks’ unique Truck as a Service (TaaS) proposition that aims to revolutionise the financing and servicing of commercial vehicle fleets.

TaaS will offer fleet managers a frictionless way to electrify their fleets, with a single, affordable, monthly fee providing access to a full-electric Volta Zero, and all of its servicing, maintenance, insurance and training requirements. It will even provide a replacement Volta Zero when needed, maximising the uptime and operational efficiency of the vehicle.