DB Schenker orders 1,500 Volta Zero

Shortly after the conclusion of the COP 26 conference in Glasgow, logistics service provider DB Schenker and Volta Trucks announced a close partnership and the pre-order of nearly 1,500 fully electric trucks of the Volta Zero type. This is the most significant order for large emission-free trucks in Europe to date, according to the manufacturer.

"On the path to climate neutrality, we have many challenges to overcome. The large-scale partnership with Volta Trucks allows us to accelerate the electrification of our fleet enormously and invest in sustainable, more environmentally friendly transport solutions, bringing us significantly closer to our goal of climate-neutral logistics," explained Cyrille Bonjean, Executive Vice President Land Transport at DB Schenker in Europe.

From the perspective of Essa Al-Saleh, Chief Executive Officer of Volta Trucks, the order confirms that major logistics companies trust the manufacturer to deliver an emission-free vehicle "on time and with the highest possible quality." As part of the partnership, DB Schenker will deploy the first prototypes of Volta Zero trucks with customers under real-world distribution conditions in the spring and summer of 2022. The insights from these tests will flow into the series production of 1,470 vehicles, which will be built at Volta Trucks' new contract manufacturing facility in Steyr, Austria. The fully electric 16-tonne Volta Zero will be used, among other places, in the Ruhr area and at other European terminals of DB Schenker to transport goods from distribution centers to inner cities and urban areas.

In this environment, the design of the vehicle, the safety-oriented driver's cab to protect vulnerable road users, and the emission-free drive should provide the greatest benefit. Together, the partners aim to explore the deployment possibilities of the technology to potentially expand the offering, they announced. The launch will begin at ten locations in five countries. As part of the partnership, the specifications of the already announced 12-ton variant of the Volta Zero will also be developed jointly. Additionally, more drivers will be trained and site assessments conducted to accelerate the deployment of the vehicles.