It seems that more and more car manufacturers are going electric these days. Ford, Porsche, and Volkswagen have all been in the news recently for the strides they’re making toward a fleet of electric vehicles. Yet there’s still a hole for bigger electric vehicles, like large trucks. The U.K. startup Volta is changing that with an electric big rig.
What is the Volta big rig all about?
Volta Truck has revealed its new prototype chassis, which is basically the thing underneath the huge box part of the truck. That’s not a technical explanation, in case you’re wondering. The prototype chassis adds a production specification frame and drivetrain to the Volta Zero truck. It will also allow the Volta Truck to be driven at normal speeds.
The prototype chassis isn’t ready for the roads quite yet. It still has to be tested out, first by Volta and then with a small set of drivers. If all goes well, Volta hopes to get the new chassis out and functional by the end of 2022.
What is the Volta Zero?
Volta started in 2019 as a way to bring more EVs to the market. Other electric vehicle manufacturers seek to either convert favorite passenger cars into electric versions or introduce new EVs. Volta, on the other hand, is focused on trucks. They’ve expanded since then to also have offices in Sweden and France. Europe seems to be a little more committed to fighting climate change than the U.S., so it’s not surprising that they haven’t expanded here yet.
The Volta Zero is a 16-ton electric truck that is set to revolutionize the trucking industry. Volta says it’s designed specifically to deal with driving in cities. City navigation tends to come with its own set of safety issues.
Orders are already coming in for the Volta Zero. In fact, Volta had to expand more rapidly than they’d planned. They’ve even introduced three new versions of the Volta Zero Truck to keep up with demand. Still, they’re taking it in stride, and proclaim that they’re leading the industry in the timeline to make big trucks more environmentally friendly.
It’s all happening quickly
Volta Trucks has designed and produced the chassis prototype in record time. Essa Al-Saleh, CEO of Volta Trucks, said, “But this is also a great example of the nimble and agile culture and approach we have at Volta Trucks. While traditional vehicle manufacturers take years to undertake market assessments, design processes and vehicle development, at Volta Trucks, we work at speed because we know that the world’s climate emergency cannot wait, and our customers need vehicles now. In six months, we have designed and developed a running prototype chassis and 18 months from now, we will be building series production vehicles for our customers. This is what they need, this is the speed they need us to work at, and this is what we’ll deliver.”
Volta saysthe Volta Zero would be able to go 95-125 miles from a single charge, which isn’t bad for a 16-ton truck. They also claim that their design will eliminate roughly 1.2 million tons of carbon dioxide by 2025. This would be truly incredible.
Hopefully, Volta Trucks will lead the way to an electric truck revolution. The more big trucks that are converted to electric, the better things will be for the environment and all of us.
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