The race to zero

INTERVIEW 6

The Race to Zero

With the aim of becoming the global leader in zero emission transport, Carl-Magnus Norden, founder and executive chairman of Volta Trucks, spoke with EV Powered about the challenges facing the company and why 2022 is a pivotal year for Volta.

What is the story behind Volta Trucks?

I started the company in 2017 and we obtained the seed funding soon afterwards. We used that to design and develop our demonstrator vehicle as I believed that it was important for the credibility of our future that potential customers and investors could see and experience a real electric commercial vehicle, not just PowerPoint slides. That vehicle was developed in less than 12 months, showing the incredible pace that we work at, and was revealed in September 2020. Since then, we have been developing and engineering the production version of the vehicle, with the first road-going prototypes now being built, as well as recruiting and scaling the company to ensure we can commercialise the products and services and start full-scale production of the Volta Zero at the end of 2022. 2021 seemed to be a significant year in the company’s history - What were some of the key milestones from last year?

Following the launch of the Volta Zero in September 2020, 2021 was an important foundation year for us. Following the launch of the demonstrator vehicle, last year saw the mule experimental prototype and, at the end of the year, the final design of the Volta Zero, as well as the first road-going prototype, proving that we are well on the way towards production of vehicles. We’ve completed two funding rounds and scaled from a handful of employees to over 200 team members. At the end of the year, I was delighted to be able to confirm a partnership with DB Schenker, Europe’s largest land transport company, for Europe’s largest purchase of full-electric trucks to date. It was a great way to be able to conclude an important year. What do you hope to achieve in 2022?

We have a huge amount to achieve by the end of 2022. We’ve got to continue the development work of the vehicles, and we will also start the development for a second range of smaller 7.5- and 12-tonne Volta Zero vehicles. Commercially we also need to develop our presence in all our additional European launch re-

gions of Madrid, Milan, Germany and the Netherlands. If 2021 was a year of building foundations, 2022 will be a year of delivery, and there’s a huge amount to do as we progress towards manufacturing full-electric tucks that will make city centres safer, healthier and more pleasant for all. What are some of the biggest engineering challenges that come with the manufacturing and mass production of fully electric HGVs?

As a start-up that’s building the world’s first purpose-built full-electric commercial vehicle, we are not reliant on established design and engineering principles or supply chains - we must build a team of experts and suppliers and do everything ourselves for the first time. That brings challenges but also, importantly, opportunities. We can assess what works well and, from a blank sheet of paper, what can be improved. We have not only completely redesigned the established commercial vehicle concept, thanks to our compact electric powertrain that makes our electric truck far safer for other vulnerable road users, but we’ve also dramatically reduced the design and development time compared to a conventional vehicle, from 5-7 years to around 24 months. This means that we can accelerate our speed to market to start making an impact as soon as possible.

Many people believe hydrogen fuel cell technology is better suited to zero-emission HGVs,

vans and lorries, instead of battery electric power - What is your viewpoint on the argument between hydrogen and battery power for vehicles of a similar size and class as the Volta Zero?

For me, there is no doubt that electric is the technology that works for the last-mile and city-centre logistics vehicle we are designing, where a range of up to 200kms is sufficient, with a return-to-base charging principle. I think that hydrogen could have a future, on the long-haul arterial routes where battery technology doesn’t currently have the longer range that hydrogen could offer. That said, battery technology has one key advantage – it’s deliverable today rather than at some point in the future when a hydrogen refill infrastructure could be available. And we need action today to avert the climate crisis and help resolve the local air quality issues.

Is enough being done from governments and industry bodies to support the production and rollout of fully electric lorries and HGVs?

In short, no. We hear politicians talking about banning combustion engine vehicles by 2035 or 2040, but the climate crisis is now, and we must accelerate the rate of zero emission vehicles coming onto the roads to address this most important societal issue. Paris is a great example of what’s possible with a progressive and aggressive mindset. Legislators in Paris have banned diesel-engine trucks from the streets from the end of 2023, as well as introducing significant financial incentives to fleets to transition to zero emission vehicles. This is creating a huge demand with, today, very little supply. We will fulfil some of this demand but encourage others to bring zero emission vehicles to the market. Only in this way can we address the climate emergency, rather than letting it continue unchecked for decades. What is a realistic timescale for a world where the majority of road transport is zero-emission?

The technology is available now, and the important Total Cost of Ownership is already positive in the case of electric versus diesel, so there is every incentive for the migration now. The speed of the migration, and when the majority of vehicle fleets will be zero emission depends on how legislation develops over the coming years. Worryingly though, if you consider that most trucks have an 8-10 year first life with a customer, and then probably have another 8-10 year life with a second customer after that - if legislators stick to the current 2040 ban on the sale of new internal combustion engine trucks, diesel-engine vehicles could still be running on roads and causing climate change and air quality pollution until at least 2055 or 2060. That’s nearly 40 years’ time. We must have the highest levels of ambition to accelerate the transition to electric and zero emission fleets.