Volta | Getty Images | Aurich Lawson
If you live in Los Angeles, you might see some of Volta Trucks’ signature electric vehicles driving around, as the Swedish startup plans to deploy a pilot fleet of Class 7 trucks in the city next year. After initially focusing on Europe, Volta Trucks revealed on Thursday that it, like Prince Akeem, is coming to America.
The Volta Zero was designed from the ground up as an electric heavy-duty truck rather than a modification of an existing combustion platform. The truck has a central driving position, with a minimum of blind spots, so that the driver is at the right height to notice vulnerable road users such as cyclists. The range is suitable for the 95-125 mile (152-201 km) route – the Zero is for urban logistics, not long haul.
But don’t think of Volta Trucks as a research project. The batteries and motors are both sourced from leaders in the field, and instead of setting up a new factory with plans for world domination, the trucks will be produced on a contract basis at the former MAN plant in Steyr, Austria.
“If you want to get into the market, you want to lower the risk of components and so on,” said Carl-Magnus Norden, who launched the company in 2019. “And that is why Proterra [which supplies the batteries]- you know, they have more experience than most when it comes to commercial battery powered vehicles. deserving [which supplies the eAxle] is clearly a big player, so when we source, we want the latest technology, but proven technology. And then it’s also for tempo and supply,” Norden explains to Ars.
The trucks were originally built to the European standard of 16 tons (35,273-lb), but in April the company also announced smaller variants of 7.5 tons (16,534 lb) and 12 tons (26,455 lb). For the US, Norden plans to follow a similar strategy, starting with a Class 7 variant (equivalent to the 16-tonne EU model), followed by smaller Class 5 and 6 variants. The first US Volta Zeros will be built in Steyr, but Volta Trucks is in talks with US contract manufacturers for local production, what if everything should go according to plan by 2025.
For starters, Volta Trucks will bring 100 zeros to the US for customers to evaluate. It currently has 24 design verification prototypes being tested in Europe, but it says it will have built more than 1,500 16-ton zeros for European customers by next year.
Commercial vehicles are work equipment and downtime should be kept to a minimum if it cannot be avoided. Volta Trucks will thus have to build a series of “truck as a service” hubs in the US, to be modeled after the one it is setting up in Europe. The company aims to cater to all of its customers’ needs, from setting up charging infrastructure to service and maintenance, to make it as easy as possible to electrify a fleet.
“The thing with this market is that there’s no one who’s really done it before. So you’ve got a bit of trial and error. We opened our first hub in Paris a month ago. Now we’re getting into the machine. So when we get to coming to the US – trucks on the road in a little over a year in Los Angeles – we should have a lot of experience by then I think we’ll have 15 to 20 cities in Europe, and we’ll experience a lot more, so I’m trying transfer that to the US as soon as possible,” Norden told us.
