Volta Trucks has revealed its strategic roadmap to enter to the North American market as part of the Route to Zero Emissions strategy, which aims to support a transition to zero emission vehicles.
The roadmap, which takes into account its product, services and manufacturing, will see a Class 7 truck introduced in 2023. The battery electric vehicle, which is equivalent to the existing European 16-ton truck, with a dry or refrigerated cargo box, will be followed by a 100% battery electric commercial fleet in North America.
Announcing the US roadmap ahead of ACT Expo in Long Beach, California, Carl-Magnus Norden, Founder of Volta Trucks, said: “Since the launch of Volta Trucks in 2019 and the reveal of the Volta Zero in September 2020, we have used London, Paris, and other European launch cities, where fleets are increasingly converting to electric, to prove that our concepts align to customers’ needs.”
“With more than 6,000 vehicle pre-orders in hand, from some of Europe’s largest fleet operators, it is time to expand our geographic horizons and look towards the significant market opportunity in North America. I believe our full-electric truck will be perfectly suited to the US customer’s needs, and we look forward to engaging customers to gain feedback on our product and services, then testing and learning as we look to exceed our expectations. I am looking forward to meeting some of North America’s largest fleet customers and introducing them to our full-electric Class 7,” he added.
The Volta Zero is designed specifically for urban logistics, using an innovative compact eAxle, comprising the electric motor transmission, and axle all in one unity and high-voltage batteries located within the chassis rails.
To improve road safety, Volta Trucks, alongside Astheimer Design, makes use of the absence of the traditional internal combustion engine present in commercial vehicles, which despite composing a small portion of city traffic, have historically been involved in a disproportionate number of accidents with vulnerable road users. The driver’s seat is centrally mounted, and lowered, in order to meet pedestrians and cyclists at eye level.
Moreover, its glass-house style cab offers a 220-degree view around the vehicle, for optimum visual awareness and blind-spot reduction. Its central driving position allows drivers to enter and exit the vehicle on either side onto the sidewalk for their own safety, and through sliding rather than swinging doors, to also ensure the safety of passing cyclists.
As an eco-friendly vehicle, it has a zero-emission powertrain, eliminating not only CO2 emissions but also harmful particulates that cause local air quality and health issues.
The Class 7 Volta Zero model also offers a modular battery configuration to deliver a range of 95-125 miles and is designed to accept both AC and DC 250kW fast charging, which delivers a full charge from empty in just over an hour. Alternatively, one hour of 19kW AC standard charging will add around 12 miles of driving range.
Volta Trucks will initially introduce a Pilot Fleet of 100 Class 7 trucks in mid-2023 that will be evaluated by US customers, starting in Los Angeles, ahead of a roll out of production vehicles in 2024. To date, Volta Trucks has built 24 road-going ‘Design Verification’ prototypes, which are currently undergoing a rigorous and extensive testing program in Europe. Ahead of the introduction in North America, the company expects to have already built more than 1,500 full-electric Class 7 trucks for European customers.
Volta Trucks will also develop its own ‘Volta Trucks Hubs’ for vehicle service and maintenance. In Europe, it has a Truck as a Service approach to ease the electrification, service and maintenance of commercial vehicles by offering a suite of services including the initial site of assessment to fully understand the needs of a customer’s depot, through to the installation of the charging set up. It also includes the finance and insurance of the vehicles to accelerate the adoption, and de-risk the ownership, providing all of the vehicle’s servicing and maintenance requirements over the customer’s lifetime of use.
Volta Trucks adopts this European approach to install hubs, which will be located close to its customers’ own logistics centres to maximise uptime and convenience. The company will also develop an extensive network of third-party facilities to increase the geographic coverage of service and maintenance outlets.
The fleet’s introduction will be closely followed by a Class 5 vehicle of 19,500 lbs, and a Class 6 truck of 26,000 lbs, which were revealed in April 2022 and are equivalent to the European 7.5- and 12-ton vehicles, in 2024/25
The first Class 7 vehicles delivered to the US will be built at the company’s existing contract manufacturing facility in Steyr, Austria, to ensure the quality of the first US vehicles, with all Class 5 and 6 vehicles for North America expected to be built in the US starting in 2024/25. But work for US-based manufacturing is now underway, and agreements with an experienced partner is expected later in 2022.