Swedish start-up Volta Trucks has concluded its winter testing programme in which it put the world’s first fully electric 16-tonne commercial truck through its paces in extreme arctic conditions in northern Sweden.
The rigorous regime of vehicle tests in temperatures as low as -30 degrees Celsius were designed to ensure the ‘Volta Zero’ truck delivers the highest levels of quality, reliability, and durability.
Some of the technical aspects of the vehicle that were evaluated include the pre-conditioning and thermal stability of the battery, interior comfort, defrosting and demisting of the cabin and mileage accumulation with different cargo weights.
Built for urban logistics, the Volta Zero can travel between 95 to 125 miles on a single charge.
Production of the vehicle is due to begin later this year, according to the manufacturer.
“The completion of our winter testing programme is another major milestone in our journey towards the start of production of the Volta Zero,” said Ian Collins, chief product officer of Volta Trucks.
“In developing the world’s first purpose-built full-electric medium duty truck, we are encountering many challenges for the first time, and needing to understand and resolve those challenges quickly to get the vehicle to market at the pace our customer’s demand. It’s unlikely that customers in our launch markets of London and Paris will experience such conditions but we need to push the vehicle to the extremes to ensure we deliver the highest levels of quality and reliability from the very first customer vehicles produced.”
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