Volta Trucks has announced it has received customer orders for its first 300 production slots, which equates to about $92.4 million in revenue. The company plans to start production of its Volta Zero in Steyr, Austria in the second quarter of this year with deliveries happening this year. This is an important milestone for the young brand, which was founded in 2019 and sets the company up for a successful first year of sales and production — if it meets all its goals.
The Volta Zero is being branded as the world’s first purpose-built, fully-electric 16-ton vehicle designed for urban logistics. It’s estimated to return a driving range of 95 to 125 miles. When designing the Volta Zero, the company focused on safety and efficiency. It features a central driving position, but at a much lower seat height when compared to a conventional truck. That decision, combined with the glass house-style cab design, gives the driver 220 degrees of visibility. This helps minimize blind spots, which is extremely important for vehicles of this type.
Volta Trucks is also offering a “Truck as a Service” proposition with the goal of giving fleet managers an easy way to electrify their fleet with a single monthly fee. That fee would cover access to a Volta Zero, the company’s charging infrastructure, as well as servicing, maintenance, insurance, and training requirements. We can thank the internet for all these “as a service” subscriptions that are now finding their way into every industry.
Speaking of servicing and maintenance, Volta Trucks does have plans to establish a network of Volta Trucks Hub facilities in its launch markets. So far, the company has announced one in Bonneuil-sur-Marne, which is south of Paris in France, and one in Tottenham, London. The company did announce plans last year to eventually expand to the U.S. market with a production rollout starting in 2024 following a pilot fleet of 100 Zeros testing in Los Angeles, California.
“Volta Trucks has made important progress in the first few weeks of 2023, confirming more than 300 customer truck orders for the first vehicles off our production line in Austria,” said Volta Trucks CEO Essa Al-Saleh. “This covers a meaningful portion of our 2023 production targets, before customers have pilot tested the vehicles. This is a major achievement and demonstrates the compelling features of the Volta Zero and the trust that our customers have in our ability to deliver.”
