Volta Trucks, a full-electric commercial vehicle manufacturer and services provider, has revealed the forthcoming 7.5- and 12-ton Volta Zero variants – the second product family in its full-electric vehicle range.
The 7.5- and 12-ton Volta Zeros have been designed by Volta Trucks’ partner, Astheimer Design in Warwick in the U.K., alongside Volta Trucks’ own engineering teams.
The new full-electric vehicles bear a close but evolutionary visual relationship to the larger 16-ton vehicle, which is now undergoing extensive engineering development and testing ahead of customer evaluation during 2022. The 7.5- and 12-ton vehicles will be visually identical at the front, with the 12-ton vehicle having a longer chassis and body, and second set of rear wheels and tires to accommodate the increased vehicle payload.
The driver of a Volta Zero has a wide 220-degrees of direct vision around the vehicle. This panoramic view of the surroundings through a glasshouse-style cab is designed to deliver a Transport for London five-star Direct Vision Standard rating for optimum visibility and the reduction of blind spots. The protection of vulnerable road users is also enhanced by the use of rear-view cameras that replace traditional mirrors, a 360-degree birds-eye camera showing the driver their complete surroundings, and blind-sport warning systems that detect objects down the sides of the vehicle.
Without the legacy internal combustion engine, the driver of a Volta Zero sits far lower than in a conventional truck, with their eye-line at around 1.8 meters. This mirrors the height of pedestrians and other road users nearby for easy visual communication.
Having confirmed the start of the project in December 2021, a pilot fleet of vehicles is expected to be launched for customer trials in 2024, with series production due to commence in early 2025.
“The forthcoming 7.5- and 12-ton models complete the full-electric Volta Zero product family,” says Essa Al-Saleh, CEO of Volta Trucks. “They’ll sit alongside our 16-ton vehicle, that’s currently engaged in extensive testing ahead of the first customer use later this year, and the 18-ton vehicle that will start production in mid-2023. Our customers tell us that they really appreciate the safety and zero-emission attributes of the 16-ton Volta Zero, but also need smaller 7.5- and 12-ton vehicles in their operations. Our engineering teams are now scaling rapidly to be able to deliver all four vehicles at pace, as our customers ask of us.”
