Sweden-based Volta Trucks, an automotive company offering electric trucks for sustainable cities, announced that it has raised €60M in a Series C extension round. In February 2022, the company had raised €230M in the initial Series C funding round.
The round was supported by all current investors. The round brings the total investment in the company to over €360M to date.
Douglas Snyder, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Volta Trucks, says, “At Volta Trucks, we have a very loyal, engaged and future-facing cap table of investors supporting our journey. Nobody has done what Volta Trucks is doing before, and this needs significant investor confidence and trust in the company vision, strategy, business case and ongoing deliverables.”
“The extension to our Series C funding round gives us further positive external validation of our journey, and our pre-order book gives us confidence from our customers that we are developing a product that the market needs,” adds Snyder.
The company already has thousands of pre-orders for the full-electric Volta Zero.
Partnership with Siemens
With an aim to accelerate commercial fleet electrification, Volta Trucks and Siemens Smart Infrastructure have signed a letter of intent, outlining cooperation to deliver a comprehensive charging infrastructure and software to Volta Trucks customers.
The partnership aims to combine Siemens’ global experience in electric vehicle support systems with Volta Trucks’ approach to commercial vehicle fleet electrification and operational competence through its Truck-as-a-Service offer. This service covers building equipment, energy management, software control systems, facility electrification, charging infrastructure, and project financing.
In order to help the clients of Volta Trucks, the partnership will provide infrastructure for complete electrification that is in line with their operating requirements.
Hands-on encounter with “Volta Zero”
Volta Trucks also announced that its Volta Zero Design Verification prototype has successfully completed the first customer driving assessments in the company’s European launch areas. These events provided clients with their first hands-on encounter with the zero-tailpipe emission medium-duty truck built for urban logistics, giving them a practical grasp of the vehicle’s capabilities and its driver-centric cab.
The evaluations carried out at testing facilities in Paris, Madrid, Milan, Selm, Germany, and Millbrook, England, represent the Volta Trucks’ latest milestones on its accelerated journey to launch zero-tailpipe emission trucks at a speed that leads the sector.
The feedback from the evaluation activities, which included more than 1,500 test drives from organisations and the international media, will be incorporated into the roadmap for the company’s upcoming products. Next-generation Production Verification prototype vehicles are already rolling off the assembly line at the company’s contract manufacturing facility in Steyr, Austria.
What does Volta Zero offer?
The Volta Zero is a purpose-built full-electric 16-tonne vehicle designed for inner-city logistics, thereby reducing the environmental impact of freight deliveries in city centres. The truck offers an operating range of 150-200 Kms (95–125 miles) and, as per company claims, will eliminate an estimated 1.9M tonnes of CO2 by 2026.
The Volta Zero is designed to provide the operator with a central driving position with a much lower seat height than a conventional truck. This design, plus a glass house-style cab design, gives the driver a wide 220-degrees of visibility, minimising dangerous blind spots.
According to Volta Trucks’ statement from February 2022, for the year 2023, Volta Trucks has production plans for 5,000 vehicles, increasing to 14,000 trucks in 2024 and up to 27,000 vehicles in 2025. By this time, Volta Trucks will be operational across Europe as well as the US, with a portfolio of four Volta Zero models in production, including 7.5-, 12-, 16-, and 18-tonne variants.
Brief about Volta Trucks
Founded in 2019 by Carl-Magnus Norden and Kjell Walöen, and currently led by CEO Essa Al-Saleh, Volta Trucks is a full-electric commercial vehicle manufacturer and services company.
It is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, but most of its business and engineering operations are undertaken in the UK, with sales teams across France, Spain, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK.
The company is also in partnership with a number of global leaders in the supply chain for the development and production of the Volta Zero, at pace and scale. The company’s prototype Volta Zero was launched in September 2020.
The contract manufacturing plant for Volta Trucks is located in Steyr, Austria, where it began creating “Production Verification” prototypes in the summer of 2022 before beginning to produce vehicles to client specifications in the early part of 2023.
In its launch markets, the business is also creating a network of “Volta Trucks Hub” repair and maintenance facilities – the first two have already been announced in Tottenham, London, and Bonneuil-sur-Marne, a suburb of Paris.
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