Founded in 2019 by Carl-Magnus Norden and Kjell Walöen, Volta Trucks aims to accelerate the transition to electric commercial vehicles, reducing the effects of climate change and helping to make their cities safer, healthier, and more sustainable for everyone.
Carl-Magnus Norden, Founder of Volta Trucks “My true goal is to inspire the rest of the sector to join us in the fight against climate change.”
Causing considerable damage
In the cities, it is not global warming that causes fatalities; it is the effect of the fumes and particulates that cause considerable damage to the health. Electrification stops these fumes from infusing lungs and from causing air pollution in their cities.
Electrification stops these fumes from infusing our lungs and from causing air pollution in their cities
Safety was and remains one of the driving forces behind Volta Trucks and stopping unnecessary deaths caused by commercial vehicles became Carl-Magnus’ passion. The journey stepped up a gear as Carl-Magnus immersed himself in the sector, gaining invaluable insight into the market, understanding the problems that existed and what solutions would be offered with the design of an all-new vehicle. Carl-Magnus saw an opportunity that could help to both limit climate change and to make a positive impact in the cities. And Volta Trucks was born.
Commercial vehicle operations
The Volta Zero is the world’s first purpose-built 16-tonne all-electric truck designed specifically for urban logistics, revolutionising commercial vehicle operations and delivering a next-generation driving experience.
With a driver-centric approach to comfort and safety, the Volta Zero enhances the drivers’ experience and working environment, providing optimum visibility and a premium interior experience. The ease of driving, combined with the significant load-carrying capacity of the Volta Zero, allows operators to use fewer vehicles. Just one Volta Zero can potentially remove up to five smaller vans from the roads, reducing congestion on city streets and evolving last-mile logistics by delivering safer and more sustainable, all-electric trucks, to protect vulnerable road users and improve city centre environments for all.
Internal combustion engine
The protection of vulnerable road users is enhanced further with the use of side-view cameras
The design concept for the Volta Zero was created by boutique design consultancy, Astheimer of Warwick, UK. The removal of the traditional internal combustion engine enabled the designers and engineers of the Volta Zero to completely rethink how a truck had always been designed.
The driver of a Volta Zero has a wide 220-degree field of direct visibility with a panoramic view of the surroundings through a glasshouse-style cab. It is designed to deliver Transport for London’s five-star Direct Vision Standard rating for optimum visibility and the reduction of blind spots. The protection of vulnerable road users is enhanced further with the use of side-view cameras that replace traditional mirrors, a 360-degree birds-eye view showing the driver their complete surroundings and blind-spot warning systems that detect objects down the sides of the vehicle.
Conveys critical information
The driver of a Volta Zero sits far lower than in a conventional truck, with their eye-line at around 1.8 metres. This is the same as pedestrians and other road users for easy visual communication between the driver and others in the urban environment.
The design of the cabin is contemporary, spacious, and light, with intuitive user interfaces
The design of the cabin is contemporary, spacious, and light, with intuitive user interfaces. The central display conveys critical information, while touch screen display units on each side control lights, climate control, navigation and trip planning, communication, and in-cab media. With the Volta Zero, Volta Trucks is changing the experience and workspace for drivers, offering them an environment more akin to a premium car than the traditional commercial vehicle, and therefore helping to address the driver shortage that exists in society today.
Traditional commercial vehicle
The fast-opening sliding doors on each side of the cabin, allow the driver to enter or exit either side of the vehicle, and always onto the pavement. Thanks to the low seating position, the driver simply steps in and out of the cab, rather than climbing up and down from a traditional cab, which is known to create health and safety issues – another positive contribution to driver recruitment and retention.
“By removing the traditional internal combustion engine that has always sat high in the front of a truck, we had a clean sheet of paper to design the commercial vehicle suitable for the 21st century, rethinking the layout and design of the truck and its cab. We had three main priorities for the design of the cab. We wanted it to be best-in-class for safety, ease and efficiency of ingress and egress, and the best driver environment of any truck on the market. With the Volta Zero, I can comfortably say that we have achieved that goal,” said Carsten Astheimer, Managing Director of Astheimer Design.
