Volta Trucks expands UK team
The Swedish electric truck start-up Volta Trucks wants to expand its research and development team in the UK to accelerate the development of the Volta Zero. The company is therefore launching a recruitment drive with the aim of employing more than 280 people by the end of 2021.
Currently, Volta Trucks says it has over 150 employees, up from a “handful” at the beginning of the year. Volta is currently looking for industrial and commercial experts, but above all for “talented and forward-thinking engineers”. Seventy positions have been advertised.
The engineers are to work mainly in the research and development centre in Reading near London, UK. According to Volta, the offices offer space for more than 110 engineers. There, the all-electric 16-tonne truck will be developed to production readiness and later the announced 7.5-, 12- and 19-tonne variants will be derived.
“As a nimble and agile start-up organisation, in 2020 and 2021, we designed and developed the Volta Zero demonstrator vehicle, introduced it to the marketplace, took it on a six-centre European roadshow, and took thousands of pre-orders for trucks, all with a small team working remotely through the pandemic,” says Volta CEO Essa Al-Saleh. “We now have a UK home for our engineers, close to where our Pilot Fleet vehicles will soon operate with customers in London.”
Earlier in September, Volta Trucks had announced that series production of the Zero would start at Steyr Automotive in Austria. The first examples are to be used in pilot fleets in Paris and London. Since Volta wants to manufacture its vehicles close to the countries of distribution in accordance with its “road-to-zero emissions strategy”, other plants are planned in addition to the contract manufacturing at Steyr – in Europe (rumoured to be at the former Nissan factory in Barcelona), but also in Asia and North America.
The Volta Zero is a sustainable electric truck for inner cities. First unveiled in 2020, the 16-tonne concept is designed from the ground up for electric mobility and – with its large windscreen and numerous assistants, for example – optimised for urban use and distribution traffic. According to earlier information, the electric drives will come from Meritor and the batteries from Proterra.
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