SEP 2022

First 25 Volta Zero ‘Design Verification’ prototype vehicles are now built and being evaluated by engineers and customers through to late 2022.

The design concepts for the Volta Zero were created by boutique design consultancy, Astheimer of Warwick, UK. The removal of the traditional internal combustion engine enabled the designers and engineers of the Volta Zero to completely rethink how a truck had always been designed. The driver of a Volta Zero has a wide 220-degree field of direct visibility around the vehicle. This panoramic view of the surroundings through a glasshouse-style cab is designed to deliver on Transport for London’s five-star Direct Vision Standard rating for optimum visibility and the reduction of blind spots. The protection of vulnerable road users is also enhanced by side-view cameras that replace traditional mirrors, a 360-degree birds-eye camera showing the driver their complete surroundings, and blind-spot warning systems that detect objects down the sides of the vehicle.

The driver of a Volta Zero sits far lower than in a conventional truck, with their eye-line at around 1.8 meters. This mirrors the height of pedestrians and other road users for easy visual communication between the driver and others around.

Safety and comfort for the driver have been optimized by minimising cognitive overload. The design of the cabin is contemporary, spacious, and light, with intuitive user interfaces. The central display conveys critical information, while touch screens on each side are used for lights, climate control, navigation and trip planning, communication, and in-cab media. With the Volta Zero, Volta Trucks is changing the experience and workspace for drivers, offering them an environment more akin to a premium car than the traditional commercial vehicle, and therefore helping to address the driver shortage that exists in today’s society.

To aid ingress and egress, the removal of the internal combustion means the driver sits in a central driving position. They have easy access through fast opening sliding doors on each side of the cabin to enter or exit either side of the vehicle, and always onto the pavement or sidewalk. Thanks to the low seating position, the driver simply steps in and out of the cab, rather than climbing up and down from a traditional cab, which is known to create health and safety issues – another positive contribution to driver recruitment and retention.

Volta Trucks will be the first full-electric medium duty commercial vehicle manufacturer in Europe to use an innovative ePowertrain to drive the rear wheels, rather than the conventional electric motor and driveshaft set up. The single electric motor, transmission, and axle unit of the Volta Zero is supplied by Meritor of the US and is contained in a lightweight and compact unit that is lighter and more efficient, delivering an increased range as a result. It also provides packaging benefits by freeing up space between the chassis rails. This is where Volta Trucks fits the high voltage battery of the vehicle – its safest possible location.

The Volta Zero will use 150 – 225 kWh of battery power, using two or three 75 kWh battery packs from Proterra of North America. The Proterra-supplied batteries will give the Volta Zero a real-world range of up to 200kms on a single charge with the long-range triple pack option. This distance is more than enough for most inner-city logistics and distribution vehicles which spend most of their operating time in slow-moving start / stop traffic. The Proterra battery pack delivers industry-leading energy density and a customizable design. This allows the battery in the Volta Zero to be located between the chassis rails.

Proterra batteries feature passive and active safety features, liquid thermal conditioning, and adheres to state-of-the-art functional safety standards, including ISO 26262 (up to ASIL C). The Proterra battery is designed to deliver over 4,000 recharge cycles over 10 years, without significant degradation, to ensure the longevity of the vehicle.

The Volta Zero has been designed to optimise its load-carrying capacity, thus minimising the number of vehicles on an operator’s fleet, and the consequent congestion on city streets. The principle is that, thanks to its overall design, the Volta Zero can operate in narrow city streets and undertake the role that three or four 3.5-tonne vehicles would ordinarily do.

The full-electric 16-tonne Volta Zero offers a payload of 8,000kgs, with an overall volume of 37.7m3 , designed to accommodate 16 Euro pallets. A refrigerated cargo box option is also available, without reducing overall cargo box volume. A supply agreement with Carrier Transicold will integrate engineless ‘Iceland’ all-electric refrigeration systems and PowerBox technology into the refrigerated Volta Zero, thus further reducing CO2 or particulate emissions versus a normal engine-powered commercial vehicle chiller.

The ambient temperature cargo box for the Volta Zero will be supplied by Paneltex from the UK, and assembled on the production line in Steyr, Austria. For refrigerated vehicles, those destined for the UK will have their cargo box supplied and fitted at Paneltex in Hull whereas vehicles destined for mainland Europe will have their cargo boxes supplied and fitted by Le Capitaine in Normandy, France.

The Volta Zero is 9,460mm in length, 3,470mm high and 2,550mm wide, with a wheelbase of 4,800mm. Its Gross Vehicle Weight is 16,000kgs and the vehicle is limited to a top speed of 90km/h (56mph).

Volta Trucks has confirmed it is also designing and engineering 7.5- and 12-tonne Volta Zero variants – the second product family in its full-electric vehicle range.

The 7.5- and 12-tonne Volta Zeros have also been designed by Volta Trucks’ partner, Astheimer Design in Warwick, UK, alongside Volta Trucks’ own engineering teams. The new full-electric vehicles will bear a close but evolutionary visual relationship to the larger 16-tonne vehicle. The 7.5-and 12-tonne models carry over the principles of the innovative cab and premium working environment for drivers. The new variants will be visually identical at the front, with the 12-tonne vehicle having a longer chassis and body, and a second set of rear wheels and tyres, to accommodate the increased vehicle payload.

The ground-up development of the 7.5- and 12-tonne vehicles is being delivered at the same industry-leading pace as other vehicle developments. Having confirmed the start of the project in December 2021, a Pilot Fleet of vehicles is expected to be launched for customer trials in 2024, with series production due to commence in early 2025. The forthcoming 7.5- and 12-tonne vehicles will make a significant contribution to the company’s objective to sell over 27,000 vehicles per year by 2025 and increasing in the years beyond.

The Volta Zero was launched in September 2020 and since its introduction, has been enthusiastically welcomed by fleet managers and city legislators alike, with market demand extending way beyond the initial London and Paris launch markets. Given the strength of market demand, Volta Trucks has accelerated its market entry, following a Europe-first strategy, followed by the US. The European roll out will see the 16-tonne Volta Zero available initially in London and Paris, followed in 2023 by Madrid, Milan, the Rhine-Ruhr area of Germany, and the Randstad region of the Netherlands.

In the US, Volta Trucks will initially introduce a Pilot Fleet of Class 7 trucks in mid-2023 that will be evaluated by US customers, starting in Los Angeles in mid-late 2023, with additional cities to follow, ahead of a roll out of production vehicles in 2024/25. The 33,000 lbs. Class 7 Volta Zero introduction will be closely followed by a Class 5 vehicle of 19,500lbs., and a Class 6 truck of 26,000lbs., equivalent to the European 7.5- and 12-ton vehicles, in 2024/2025.

Since launch, Volta Trucks has seen significant customer traction, and to date, has over 50 customers who have pre-ordered vehicles. The company has a total pipeline of over 10,000 trucks, and a total pre-order bank of over 6,500 vehicles, with a pre-order bank value of circa €1.4 billion.

These pre-orders have represented the largest for full-electric trucks in Europe to date, and with some of Europe’s largest transport and fleet rental companies. In November 2021, Volta Trucks announced Europe’s largest pre-orders of full-electric trucks, with DB Schenker’s pre-order of 1,470 vehicles. This followed a previous-largest order of electric trucks in Europe with Petit Forestier’s pre-order of 1,000 Volta Zeros in December 2020.

In July 2021, Volta Trucks confirmed that the first Volta Zero vehicles will be manufactured in Austria, by Steyr Automotive, formerly MAN Truck and Bus Austria. The announcement followed a wide-ranging competitive tender process with potential suppliers throughout Europe. Steyr Automotive were appointed based on their extensive experience of commercial vehicle manufacturing, existing manufacturing infrastructure and consequent speed to market.

The announcement to partner with Steyr Automotive provides Volta Trucks with more than 100 years of manufacturing experience building large commercial vehicles. Over time, the contract will create up to 500 jobs in the region in addition to an estimated 2000 positions within the supply chain.

The company is also considering a number of additional manufacturing locations in North America to have the capacity to meet the significant volume ramp up envisaged the company’s Business Plan.

https://voltatrucks.com/press/press-kit