Volta Trucks, a Swedish electric truck startup, received €230 million in its Series C funding to support the start of production for its first fully electric vehicle. European EV producer signed a contract with Steyr Automotive last year to build electric trucks together at Volkswagen’s heavy-duty vehicle factory in Austria.
The first Volta vehicle to be manufactured will be called Volta Zero, a 16-tonne electric truck. Volta has already received more than 5,000 soft orders with a total value of €1.2 billion. Zero will offer up to 200 kilometers of range on a single charge. It will also have two battery pack options, the base model with 150-kWh capacity and a 225-kWh high capacity trim. The electric truck will carry up to 8,200 kg of payload, and reach up to 90 km/h when fully loaded.
Volta Zero to enter mass-production at MAN’s old Austria plant
Steyr Automotive is the manufacturing partner of the Volta Trucks, as the two companies signed an agreement last September to jointly produce Zero truck. It will enter mass production at Volkswagen’s Steyr plant where MAN trucks are manufactured. VW will end production in that facility as soon as this year, after that Volta Trucks will move in to start operation. Swedish startup estimates an initial production of 5,000 trucks in the first year. The annual production capacity of the old MAN factory will be around 27,500, according to Steyr Automotive’s plan.
Aside from the 16-tonne Zero truck, Volta will also design and manufactured both 7.5-tonne and 12.5-tonne fully electric trucks. €230 million Series C funding will mostly cover its financial needs for the production of Volta Zero. It has already gathered more than 5,000 orders just by showing some prototypes to commercial buyers, which is enough for investors to put hundreds of millions of euros.
Volta Trucks will start deliveries of its electric truck in mid-2022. Mass production is also due in 2022. Here is the promo video that shows Volta Zero’s special design:
