Volta Trucks has announced that the first Volta Zero vehicle has been completed at the electric commercial vehicle manufacturer’s contract manufacturing facility in Steyr, Austria.
The battery-electric vehicle, the first of a series of second-generation ‘Production Verification’ prototypes, will form part of a Pilot Fleet of trucks.
These will be loaned to customers for extended periods in late 2022 and early 2023 to allow fleet operators to understand how the purpose-built full-electric medium-duty commercial vehicle can be integrated into their operations.
The start of series production of customer specification vehicles is scheduled to start in early 2023.
Volta Trucks’ contract manufacturing facility is run by Steyr Automotive, formerly MAN Truck and Bus Austria.
Steyr Automotive has reserved a capacity of 14,000 vehicles per year for Volta Trucks from its total available production.
Kjell Walöen, Volta Trucks’ co-founder and chief manufacturing and logistics officer, said: “This first vehicle rolling off the line at our manufacturing plant in Steyr is the latest milestone on the Volta Trucks journey towards the start of production of customers’ vehicles.
“To have achieved this landmark in just 12 months is a testament to the pace that we are working at to deliver the safest and most sustainable trucks to urban streets, and the excellent collaboration we have with our partners at Steyr Automotive.”
Over time, manufacturing the Volta Zero will reportedly create 510 jobs, plus 180 jobs in the building of the cargo boxes, in addition to an estimated 2,000 positions within the supply chain.
The manufacturing contract has a value of up to €1bn (£875m) over its lifetime.
