Sweden’s Volta Trucks bags €60M; collaborates with Siemens for the electrification of the fleet
Sweden-based Volta trucks, an automotive company that offers electric trucks for sustainable cities, announced that it has raised €60 million in a Series C extension round. In February 2022, the company had raised 230 million euros in the initial Series C funding round.
The round was supported by all existing investors. The round brings the total investment in the company to over €360 million to date.
Douglas Snyder, Chairman of Volta Trucks, says: “At Volta Trucks, we have a very loyal, committed and forward-looking cap table of investors supporting our journey. No one has done what Volta Trucks is doing before, and this requires significant investor confidence and trust in the company’s vision, strategy, business case and ongoing deliveries.”
“The extension of 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 all-electric Volta Zero.
Collaboration with Siemens
Aiming to accelerate the electrification of the commercial fleet, Volta Trucks and Siemens Smart Infrastructure have signed a letter of intent detailing the collaboration 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 electrification of commercial vehicle fleets and operational expertise through its Truck-as-a-Service offering. This service includes building equipment, energy management, software control systems, facility electrification, charging infrastructure and project financing.
To help Volta Trucks customers, the partnership will provide full electrification infrastructure aligned with their operational requirements.
Hands-on meeting with “Volta Zero”
Volta Trucks also announced that its Volta Zero Design Verification prototype has successfully completed the first customer drive assessments in the company’s European launch areas. These events gave customers their first hands-on encounter with the zero-emission medium-duty truck built for urban logistics, giving them a hands-on understanding of the vehicle’s capabilities and its driver-centric cab.
The evaluations, conducted at test facilities in Paris, Madrid, Milan, Selm, Germany and Millbrook, England, represent Volta Trucks’ latest milestones on its accelerated journey to launch zero-emission trucks at an industry-leading rate.
The feedback from the evaluation activities, which included more than 1,500 test drives from organizations and international media, will be incorporated into the roadmap for the company’s future 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?
Volta Zero is a purpose-built 16-tonne all-electric vehicle designed for inner-city logistics, reducing the environmental impact of freight deliveries in city centres. The truck offers a range of 150–200 km (95–125 miles) and, according to the company’s claims, will eliminate an estimated 1.9 million tons of CO2 by 2026.
The Volta Zero is designed to give the driver a central driving position with a much lower seat height than a conventional truck. This design, plus a glasshouse-style cab design, gives the driver a wide 220-degree field of view, minimizing dangerous blind spots.
According to Volta Trucks statement of 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 in operation across Europe as well as the US, with a portfolio of four Volta Zero models in production, including 7.5-, 12-, 16- and 18-ton 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 manufacturer and service company for all-electric commercial vehicles.
It is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, but most of its business and engineering operations are conducted in the UK, with sales teams in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK.
The company is also partnering with a number of global supply chain leaders for the development and production of 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 starting to manufacture vehicles to customer specifications in early 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.