Electric truck start-up Volta Trucks has announced that its Volta Zero truck will be manufactured by Steyr Automotive in Steyr, Austria.
The Volta Zero is marketed as the “world’s first purpose-built full-electric 16-tonne vehicle designed for inner-city freight deliveries.” Its electric powertrain provides an operating range of between 150 km and 200 km (95 – 125 miles) and Volta believes it will eliminate nearly 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 by 2025.
An interesting feature of the Volta Zero is that the driver sits in the center of the cabin, like the Tesla Semi, and in a much lower position than a conventional truck. The truck also has a glass house-style cab design that gives drivers no less than 220 degrees of visibility.
Read More: Volta Zero Is A 16-Tonne Electric Truck With A Central Driving Position
Volta plans to launch four variants of the Zero, ranging from 7.5 to 19 tonnes, and intends on building more than 27,000 units anually by 2025. One reason why Volta selected the Steyr facility in Austria is that it plans to manufacture vehicles close to the markets in which they will be sold in a bid to reduce the company’s environmental impact. London and Paris have been identified as the two key launch cities. Volta hopes to eventually expand across Europe, North America, and Asia.
“The partnership with Steyr Automotive marks a significant milestone for Volta Trucks, and one of the important milestones ahead of us starting to build full electric trucks by the end of 2022,” Volta co-founder and chief technology officer Kjell Waloen said in a statement. “The team at Steyr Automotive has demonstrable capability to manufacture the Volta Zero with decades of previous premium truck-building experience. Building our trucks in Austria, in the heart of our European launch region, will accelerate our time to market and minimise the environmental footprint of our operations, supporting our sustainability ambitions – a key factor in our decision-making process.”
