All-electric trucks are becoming a reality, but aren’t the only solution

There’s still a lot of debate about what fuel will power heavy commercial vehicles in the future. Yes, passenger and light-commercial vehicles are seemingly heading down the battery electric route, but the not everyone is convinced it’s a technology that can power bigger commercials.

Firms, are funnelling research money into hydrogen projects, including Scania and Volvo. But that isn’t stopping new companies from exploring how batteries could be applied, and electric trucks are taking a step closer to public roads.

Volta Trucks has completed a rigorous programme of hot weather testing of its full-electric 16-tonne Volta Zero.

Taking place over six weeks at the purpose-built Nardo Technical Centre in southern Italy, the hot weather testing programme was designed to ensure that the Volta Zero can deliver the reliability and durability required when series production of customer vehicles starts early next year.

The Volta Trucks completed more than 2,500km of customer-focused driving cycles at motorway, town and city speeds. Undertaken in temperatures of up to 39ºC during the day and 28ºC at night. The testing pushed the air-conditioning system and thermal management of the battery and powertrain to the extremes to ensure optimum operational reliability.

Although unlikely to be experienced in its natural urban surroundings, testing has also been undertaken on course dustier surfaces, which provided an even tougher challenge for the vehicle’s chassis, pushing the suspension, steering, traction control and braking system beyond the expected limit of normal customer usage. In addition, dust accumulation was studied for cabin and load box ingress, as well as how it sits on components such as lights, wipers and panels.

Ian Collins, Chief Product Officer of Volta Trucks, said: “The completion of our hot weather testing programme marks another important milestone in the development and delivery of the Volta Zero. The testing allows our engineers to incorporate their latest findings in the series production of customer specification vehicles, ensuring the Volta Zero will deliver a reliable and durable experience for future customers.”

The Volta Zero is a battery-electric 16-tonne vehicle designed for urban logistics, reducing the environmental impact of freight deliveries in city centres. It has an operating range of 95-125 miles.

Changing design

Volta Trucks’ aim was to produce the safest trucks for cities possible.

With no internal combustion engine, the Volta Zero driver sits in a centrally, with a much lower seat height than a conventional truck. This combination, plus a glass house-style cab design, gives the driver a wide 220º of visibility, minimising dangerous blind spots. The prototype Volta Zero was launched in September 2020, with the first vehicles starting to be evaluated by customers in late-2022.

Time will tell if the company and its first production vehicle is a success, but the initial signs are promising. In November 2021, Volta Trucks announced Europe’s largest purchase of full-electric trucks with DB Schenker’s order of 1,470 vehicles. This followed Petit Forestier’s order of 1,000 Volta Zeros. Volta Trucks now has a total order bank of around 6,500 vehicles, with an order bank value of circa €1.4 billion.

There is still debate to be had about heavy commercial vehicle powertrain design. Volta has designed its first vehicle for urban applications, whereas many heavy commercial vehicles spend huge amounts of time on motorways, racking up enormous mileages. What powers these vehicles in the future is a question that still needs to be answered.

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