Sweden-based zero-emissions truck manufacturer Volta Trucks has announced that Paris will be the location for its first “truck-as-a-service” customer operations centre, with other hubs planned in the UK, Italy, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands by the end of 2023.
According to Volta Trucks, confirmation of the London hub location will be announced shortly.
The Volta Trucks service hubs will service and maintain the Volta Zero – the world’s first purpose-built fully-electric 16-tonne vehicle designed for urban logistics, with an operating pure-electric range of 150-200 km. The Paris location has been announced as Volta prepares for the first customer evaluations of the Zero which are due to start in mid-2022. The fit-out of the hub will “start soon”, according to Volta, and it is expected to be operational later in the summer.
The Paris hub, which is located in Bonneuil-sur-Marne to the southeast of the city, will feature eight workshop bays capable of servicing 600 trucks per year. These will include the new equipment needed to keep fully electric commercial vehicles well maintained and to minimise downtime, according to Volta. The hub will also host admin offices, a Volta Trucks Academy training centre and call centre.
The location was chosen due to its good road and port connections. It will serve the logistics centres of Rungis, Orly, Créteil, and Bonneuil, where the first Volta Trucks’ customers already have distribution warehouses.
Expanding the service network
The first Paris service hub is part of Volta’s wider representation strategy to develop vehicle service offerings across all its initial launch locations, including in Paris, London, Madrid, Milan, the Rhine-Ruhr region of Germany, and the Randstad region of the Netherlands. The first hub in Paris will cover the south of the city, with an additional hub covering the main logistics and distribution centres in the north of Paris to be confirmed soon.
The hubs are a “critical enabler” of the firm’s truck-as-a-service offering, according to Volta, which sets out to “revolutionise the finance and servicing of commercial vehicle fleets”. It will do this by offering a single, affordable, monthly fee that funds the use of a Volta Zero vehicle, and all its servicing, maintenance, insurance, and training requirements. It will even provide a replacement Volta Zero when needed, maximising the uptime and operational efficiency of the vehicle.
Casper Norden, Chief Fleet Solutions Officer at Volta Trucks, said: “The confirmation of our first truck-as-a-service hub is a significant milestone on our journey to the production of our vehicles. Uptime is critical for our customers, and the forthcoming opening of this facility gives our customers the confidence to know where their vehicles will be maintained to the highest standards. It also gives us a base for our Volta Trucks Academy training school for drivers, sales teams, and the technicians who will work on the vehicles. It gives us a hub and a home in every market, with Paris as our first. I look forward to rolling out similar facilities in London soon, and all our other European launch cities in 2023.”
Order book
Recent orders for the 16-tonne Volta Zero include DB Schenker’s order of 1,470 vehicles in November 2021 – this contract represented Europe’s largest purchase of full-electric trucks, and Petit Forestier’s order of 1,000 Volta Zeros. Meanwhile, last month Volta Trucks announced that it has teamed up with The Crown Estate in the UK and retail logistics company Clipper Logistics to trial the 16-tonne electric vehicle. Volta Trucks now has a total order bank of around 4,500 vehicles, with an order bank value of circa €1 billion.
In February the company raised €230 million in capital following a “successful and oversubscribed” Series C funding round. In addition to the development of the 16-tonne Volta Zero, the funding will be spent on the continued development of Volta Trucks’ recently confirmed 7.5- and 12-tonne full-electric variants, as well as prepare the company’s contract manufacturing facility in Steyr, to start production of customer vehicles by the end of 2022.
According to Volta, 2023 will be the company’s first year of series production, with production plans for 5,000 vehicles, increasing to 14,000 trucks in 2024 and up to 27,000 vehicles in 2025. By the end of 2025, the company plans to be operational across Europe and the US, with four Volta Zero models in production, including 7.5-, 12-, 16- and 18-tonne variants.
