Page 24 - Commercial Vehicle Engineer - June 2021

VOLTA TRUCKS
ROAD TO ZERO STRATEGY
The Volta Zero was launched in September 2020 and since then it has been welcomed by fleet managers, with market demand extending beyond the initial London and Paris launch markets. For example, at the end of 2020, Volta Trucks announced what was believed to be Europe’s single largest purchase of full- electric large commercial vehicles with the sale of 1,000 Volta Zeros to Petit Forestier, Europe’s largest refrigerated commercial rental fleet. The orderbook had swelled to $260 million by January 2021 and continues to grow on the back of increasing customer interest, Volta say.
“We have seen huge success since launching the 16-tonne Volta Zero in September 2020,” says Al-Saleh. “We have significant tail winds with zero emission large commercial vehicles, thanks to forthcoming legislation changes that are driving demand, as well as
many customers with uncompromising sustainability agendas wanting to purchase the most environmentally focused vehicles for their fleets. This has created a very strong order book that encourages us to rapidly accelerate our plans.
“When we launched the Volta Zero, we’d expected to be selling 5,000 vehicles a year with a single model by 2025.
Given our pace of development, driven
by customer demand, we clearly see the opportunity to expand the Volta Zero into a portfolio of vehicles to offer customers
a wider selection of full-electric vehicle sizes, and to accelerate the change to
zero emissions. This leads us to far more ambitious sales expectations, with more than five times the number of vehicles now expected to be built compared to our original proposal. That’ll see over 27,000 vehicles sold per year by 2025, and further volume growth afterwards.
Volta Trucks plans to accelerate its market entry with a Europe-first strategy, followed by US and Asian cities. The Volta Zero was initially launched in the UK and France and is currently in Spain for a tailored roadshow with customers.
Petit Forestier ordered 1,000 Volta Zeros last year
“We have seen huge success since launching the 16-tonne Volta Zero in September 2020”
24 JUNE 2021 > COMMERCIAL VEHICLE ENGINEER
Afterwards, it will be presented in Germany and North America over the summer, with other European markets including Netherlands, Italy, and Belgium to be confirmed by year end.
Volta Trucks expects to introduce the Volta Zero in all its four weight variants across all its core markets. Given the significant market demand for full-electric commercial vehicles, driven by customers' needs and regulation, Volta Trucks anticipate sales volumes increasing further in the following years.
Demand has also been accelerated by Volta Trucks’ Truck as a Service (TaaS) proposition that aims to revolutionise the financing and servicing of commercial vehicle fleets. TaaS will offer fleet managers a frictionless way to electrify their fleets, with a single, affordable, monthly fee providing access to a full- electric Volta Zero, and all its servicing, maintenance, insurance and training requirements. It will even provide a replacement Volta Zero when needed, maximising the uptime and operational efficiency of the vehicle.