Volta Trucks has started production of the first Volta Zero e-truck prototypes
Many of these production-specification prototypes will be lent to selected customers for extended periods to be tested in their real-world logistics conditions, undertaking millions of delivery kilometres, alongside Volta Trucks’ own engineers.
Volta Trucks has announced in the last days that the very first Volta Zero e-truck prototypes have been produced in Coventry, UK. We’re talking about the first road-going ‘Design Verification’ (DV) models of the electric truck. A total of 25 vehicles will be manufactured and once completed in January, the fleet will embark on a rigorous testing regime. This will involve Volta Trucks engineers replicating a wide range of customer usage and delivery cycles, as well as taking the Volta Zero to the extremes of cold weather environments in the Arctic, hot weathers in equatorial conditions, and crash testing, all to validate the safety, durability, and reliability of the vehicle.
Many of these production-specification prototypes will be lent to selected customers for extended periods to be tested in their real-world logistics conditions, undertaking millions of delivery kilometres, alongside Volta Trucks’ own engineers. This is part of a roadmap that is expected to end late in 2022, with the beginning of the serial production stage at the Steyr Automotive facilities in Austria. Volta Trucks participated in Solutrans 2021, hosted by Petit Forestier.
Ian Collins on the first Volta Zero e-truck prototypes
Ian Collins, Chief Product Officer of Volta Trucks, said: «In August, the first Volta Zero rolling chassis started testing, and we’ve already extracted huge amounts of data from that vehicle. We have integrated that feedback into the Design Verification prototypes that start production today. We now move into a rapid test – learn – iterate – develop phase. This is going to be far more condensed and intensive than a normal vehicle testing programme, given our ambitious timeline to start series production in a year’s time, that is driven by customers’ needs for zero-emission trucks. This will take us to some of the hottest, coldest and most extreme conditions in the world, all to ensure that the production specification vehicles that roll off the production line by the end of 2022 deliver the highest possible quality standards and exceed our customers’ expectations».
