A guest from Sweden: The Volta Zero pays a visit to DB Schenker

The future of logistics belongs to electric vehicles that are used throughout the entire value chain. With this in mind, the Swedish commercial vehicle manufacturer Volta Trucks develops battery-electric trucks in the 7.5 to 18-ton GVW range. Volta Trucks recently presented its first 16-ton electric truck at DB Schenker’s facility in Frankfurt am Main. “Seeing the Volta truck live and up close was absolutely amazing,” says Christian Drenthen, member of the DB Schenker Board of Management with responsibility for Land Transport, who also got to participate in a test drive with the truck. “The vehicle was designed with the idea of truly focusing on what’s best for truck drivers.”

Volta Trucks is a young startup from Sweden that was established by Carl-Magnus Norden and Kjell Waloen in 2017. The company aims to develop electric trucks in order to ensure sustainable logistics over the last mile. To this end, Volta Trucks unveiled its first all-electric truck last year – the 16-ton Volta Zero, which the company says has a range of up to 200 km in inner-city operations for goods distribution transport.

Volta has presented the new truck to customers in France, Spain, and Germany – including DB Schenker. Having completed its roadshow, the truck is now on display at a logistics trade fair in Farnborough in the UK (from June 30 to July 1, 2021).

Volta plans to launch four electric truck models in the 7.5-ton range, the 12-ton range, and the 16 to 19-ton range between now and 2025. In this manner, the company plans to meet demand for heavy-duty inter-city and inner-city transport operations. This is a key segment in which only a few acceptable models have been marketed to date.

Greater safety in cities

The Volta truck truly stands out through its design: Because the engine and transmission are installed at the rear axle, the driver’s cab can be mounted low, which increases safety for both drivers and pedestrians in cities. The truck’s lithium iron phosphate batteries have a capacity of 150-200 kilowatt-hours, which enables a range of 150-200 kilometers.

The new truck is also attractive in terms of costs: The Volta Zero has 90 percent fewer mechanical parts than a similar truck with a combustion engine, which is why Volta Trucks believes its operating costs will be lower than those for a diesel truck.

Volta Trucks also offers Truck as a Service packages that include financing and maintenance. Here, customers are given access to their vehicle, charging infrastructure, and all servicing, maintenance, insurance, and training requirements in exchange for a monthly fee.

It’s therefore also crucial that commercial vehicle manufacturers like Volta Trucks are now thinking bigger and plan to produce a large number of vehicles in the near future.