Volta Trucks has defined its emissions reduction strategy and is launching four fully electric commercial vehicles. The trucks will weigh between 7.5 and 19 tons and will be manufactured in several plants. The goal is annual vehicle sales of 27,000 in expanded markets.
The company plans to launch these new trucks by 2025. The Volta Zero was the first purpose-built, fully electric 16-ton commercial vehicle for inner-city last-mile deliveries. Volta is building on the Zero for these new models. The company plans to expand its product portfolio to include three further variants in the middle to lower range of the heavy-duty class.
The 4 electric vehicles
The Volta Zero will be the first of the four delivered. Volta plans to have its Pilot Fleet trucks built by the end of 2021, and series production is slated to begin around 12 months later. The vehicle is currently still in the development phase and testing of the early prototype is expected to begin soon.
After the production of the 16-ton Volta Zero, the largest vehicle will be the 19-ton vehicle. After that, the medium-sized 12-ton variants will be in 2023. Volta expects a pilot fleet of the smaller 7.5-ton vehicles to be launched for customer trials in 2023 and production to begin in late 2024. The later vehicles are currently in the early design development phase.
Volta plans to design all variants with optimized payloads that will allow fleet managers to use a smaller number of larger Volta Zero vehicles, which in turn will put several smaller vans out of service. This would help reduce traffic congestion in the city center.
27,000 Volta Trucks per year from 2025
Volta plans to grow its sales volumes to over 27,000 per year from 2025. The strategy focuses on a Europe-first city-specific strategy. North America and Asia follow. With the sale of 1,000 Volta Zeros to Petit Forestier in 2020, Volta announced what is likely to be the largest single purchase of all-electric large commercial vehicles in Europe. Forestier is Europe’s largest commercial commercial rental fleet.
Due to the strong market demand for trucks in Europe, Volta Trucks is accelerating its entry into the European market. Initially, the Volta Zero was introduced in the UK and France. It is currently in Spain for a roadshow with customers. After his trip to Spain, Volta will bring his truck to Germany and North America in the summer. Given the market demand for all-electric commercial vehicles driven by both customer needs and regulations, Volta Trucks expects volume to increase beyond 2025 after reaching 27,000 units per year.
Essa Al-Saleh, Chief Executive Officer of Volta Trucks, shared some thoughts on the company’s new road-to-zero emissions strategy:
“We have had great successes since the introduction of the 16-ton Volta Zero in September 2020. Thanks to the upcoming legislative changes, which are driving demand, and many customers with uncompromising sustainability agendas, we have significant tailwind in emission-free large commercial vehicles to buy the most environmentally friendly vehicles for their fleets. This has created a very strong order book which encourages us to accelerate our plans quickly.
“When we launched the Volta Zero, we expected to sell 5,000 vehicles per year with a single model by 2025. Given our pace of development, which is determined by customer demand, we clearly see the opportunity to expand the Volta Zero into a portfolio of vehicles to offer customers a wider range of all-electric vehicle sizes and to accelerate the transition to zero emissions. This leads us to far more ambitious sales expectations as more than five times the number of vehicles will be built compared to our original proposal. Over 27,000 vehicles will be sold annually through 2025, and the volume will continue to grow thereafter. To achieve these ambitious goals and timelines, we will be very nimble and agile to ensure our speed to market. We will also need a network of world class manufacturing facilities. I am delighted that we have recently shown interest in building Volta Zeros in Barcelona and are investigating several other facilities in Europe, Asia and North America to ensure we can keep up with demand. “
Carl-Magnus Norden, founder and Executive Chairman of Volta Trucks, also added his thoughts.
“When we founded the company, we originally wanted to decarbonise the logistics operations and make the city center safer and more sustainable to live and work there. However, we originally felt that we could not achieve this goal on our own, and we strongly encouraged other manufacturers to do so on their path to zero emissions. In the past few months we have seen unprecedented demand in the market, which confirms that our ambition is well received by our customers, but we have also seen very few other start-ups or OEMs announcing new all-electric commercial vehicles in the medium have heavy duty sectors. On this basis, we need to deliver more of the decarbonization of the logistics industry itself, and the introduction of four separate all-electric commercial vehicles with annual sales of more than 27,000 trucks by 2025, just three years after production started, is a very important mission to support our to realize original vision. “
Do you value the originality of CleanTechnica? Consider becoming a CleanTechnica member, supporter, technician, or ambassador – or a patron on Patreon.
Do you have a tip for CleanTechnica, would you like to advertise or suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
