Volta Trucks has started production on its first road-going ‘Design Verification’ (DV) Volta Zero EV prototype at a special facility in Coventry, UK. DV prototypes will be the first fully electric Volta Zero vehicles built featuring the recently unveiled production-ready design.
The EV truck manufacturer will build a total of 25 units, all of which will then begin a rigorous testing regime come January. Testing will include engineers replicating a wide range of customer usage and delivery cycles, as well as taking the trucks to extremely cold environments in the Arctic, as well as hot environments such as one might find in equatorial regions.
Crash tests will also be performed, so as to gauge the safety, durability and reliability of these eco-friendly Volta Zero delivery trucks.
Once the engineers have their results, the numbers will be used for the final prototype stage or Production Verification (PV) stage. Those prototypes will be slightly different, and their assembly will take place at a separate manufacturing plant in Steyr, Austria, in mid-2022. Eventually, they will make their way to select customers for further testing in real-world logistics conditions, covering millions of delivery miles.
“In August, the first Volta Zero rolling chassis started testing, and we’ve already extracted huge amounts of data from that vehicle. We have integrated that feedback into the Design Verification prototypes that start production today,” said Volta Trucks chief product officer, Ian Collins.
“We now move into a rapid test – learn – iterate – develop phase. This is going to be far more condensed and intensive than a normal vehicle testing program, given our ambitious timeline to start series production in a year’s time.”
The first production-ready Volta Zero trucks are scheduled to roll off the assembly line by the end of next year, possibly in time to put in some serious work during the holidays.
Crash tests will also be performed, so as to gauge the safety, durability and reliability of these eco-friendly Volta Zero delivery trucks.
Once the engineers have their results, the numbers will be used for the final prototype stage or Production Verification (PV) stage. Those prototypes will be slightly different, and their assembly will take place at a separate manufacturing plant in Steyr, Austria, in mid-2022. Eventually, they will make their way to select customers for further testing in real-world logistics conditions, covering millions of delivery miles.
“In August, the first Volta Zero rolling chassis started testing, and we’ve already extracted huge amounts of data from that vehicle. We have integrated that feedback into the Design Verification prototypes that start production today,” said Volta Trucks chief product officer, Ian Collins.
“We now move into a rapid test – learn – iterate – develop phase. This is going to be far more condensed and intensive than a normal vehicle testing program, given our ambitious timeline to start series production in a year’s time.”
The first production-ready Volta Zero trucks are scheduled to roll off the assembly line by the end of next year, possibly in time to put in some serious work during the holidays.