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By Nick Carey
LONDON (Reuters) – Electric vehicle startup Volta Trucks announced on Thursday that it will add three new models for zero-emission inner-city deliveries to businesses and increase its sales forecast to 27,000 units per year by 2025.
Company founder Carl-Magnus Norden told Reuters that the expanded model range – trucks in the 7.5 tons, 12 tons, 16 tons and 19 tons weight classes – is based on customer requirements to expand his first model, the Volta Zero.
“Customers have come to us asking for vehicles of different sizes, said Norden,” so that we have the opportunity to be much more ambitious. “
The company had previously announced a production forecast of 5,000 units per year through 2025.
Norden said the company should announce large new orders in the coming months and start another round of funding this year. Earlier this year, the company announced $ 20 million in funding from investors, including investment firm Luxor Capital.
Stockholm-based Volta Trucks, also operating in the UK, plans to start production of the 16-ton Volta Zero electric vehicle in 2022.
The company currently has an order backlog of $ 260 million. The largest public contract to date concerns 1,000 trucks from the French refrigerator truck manufacturer Petit Forestier.
Norden said the largest new truck model is set to go into production in 2023, with the two smaller models expected to arrive in 2024. Aside from major European markets, the company will be bringing its Volta Zero demo model to the US this summer.
The tightening of the CO2 emission targets in Europe and China, together with the improvement in battery technology, has led to a greater range at lower costs and increased the attractiveness of commercial vehicles.
Volta Trucks has selected the US electric bus manufacturer Proterra to supply its batteries.
Proterra goes public through a merger with ArcLight Clean Transition Corp, a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC).
(Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
