Volta Trucks raises €230m in latest funding round
Volta Trucks has raised €230 million in capital following a “successful and oversubscribed” Series C funding round, as it prepares the 16-tonne full-electric Volta Zero for series production.
The money will be spent on the company’s engineering and business operations through until after the start of series production of the 16-tonne Volta Zero at the end of 2022. This will include the development of a fleet of design verification prototypes for engineering development and testing, as well as a fleet of product verification vehicles that will be evaluated by customers in London, UK, and Paris, France, in mid-2022.
Volta Trucks, an Anglo-Swedish start-up company which manufactures and provides services for zero-emissions electric trucks, currently has a total order bank for the Volta Zero of around 5,000 vehicles, with value of around €1.2 billion.
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.
“The successful and oversubscribed conclusion of our Series C funding round gives us a positive external validation of our journey,” said Essa Al-Saleh, Chief Executive Officer of Volta Trucks. “As an innovator and disruptor in commercial vehicles, we are working at industry-leading pace and have significant ambitions. The closing of the Series C funding round gives us the financial runway to be able to deliver on all our goals as we transition from a start-up to a manufacturer of full-electric trucks.”
Future developments
Founded in 2017, Volta Trucks is a scale-up full-electric commercial vehicle manufacturer and services company. Its head office is in Stockholm, Sweden, with its engineering led from the UK, and forthcoming manufacturing facility in Steyr, Austria.
The prototype Volta Zero was launched in September 2020, with the first vehicles expected to be operating with customers in mid-2022. The Volta Zero has been specifically designed for urban logistics, with the aim of reducing the environmental impact of freight deliveries in city centres. The company predicts that the Volta Zero will eliminate an estimated 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 by 2025.
The Zero has an operating pure-electric range of 150-200 km and its glass house-style cab and the driver’s central driving position gives the driver a wide 220-degrees of visibility, minimizing dangerous blind spots.
In addition to the development of the 16-tonne Volta Zero, the latest funding will also 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.
Series C funding
The Series C funding round was led by New York-based Luxor Capital, while initial seed investor, Byggmästare Anders J Ahlström from Stockholm, added to its holding in the company and brought further direct and indirect co-investors to the table. Previous Series B investor, Agility, a provider of supply chain services, innovation, and investment, also joined the capital raise.
Furthermore, private entrepreneurial investment firm B-FLEXION, formerly Waypoint Capital, also became investors in the Volta Trucks journey.
