With 100 years of experience and expertise in commercial vehicle development and manufacturing, the Steyl plant in Austria has been a key factor in the success of Swedish new power startup Volta Trucks in rolling off the production line in half the time of traditional truck plants, continuing to contribute to a lower carbon and safer city life.
In October last year, we reported that Austria’s Steyr Auto signed a contract with Swedish electric Truck upstart Volta Truck to confirm the mass production of the world’s first 16-ton all-electric commercial truck Volta Zero. In April this year, Volta Zero rolled off the production line at the Steyr factory as scheduled.
Designed specifically to meet the needs of inner-city parcel transport and freight carriers, Volta Zero reduces the environmental impact of inner-city freight, has a pure electric range of 150-200 km, and is expected to reduce 1.9 million tons of CO2 emissions by 2026. It is reported that the first batch of production cars will be the same as the second batch of prototypes produced last year, through leasing for customer test drives and daily use scenarios. Formal orders are expected to be delivered in the third quarter of 2023.
In the future, the Steyr plant will retain an annual capacity of 14,000 units for Volta Trucks. Volta Trucks expects to maximize the use of this capacity as production ramps up over the next few years. At the same time, the contract for Volta Zero will bring 700 new jobs to the Steyr region of Upper Austria, in addition to around 2,000 jobs in the supply chain.
Volta Trucks, founded in 2019, is younger than most of the new Chinese forces. How can such a startup, in just two and a half years (more than 50% shorter than the development and manufacturing cycle of traditional truck factories), turn a concept car into a mass-produced, EU standard, road-ready product, while avoiding the production delays and supply chain pressures that have plagued many similar startups?
In addition to Volta Trucks’ excellent start-up team, which selected the almost uncompetitive light truck segment and took advantage of the EU city emission regulations, another important partner had to be mentioned: Volta Trucks’ experienced foundry, Steyr Automotive Austria.
In August 2021, Steyr Auto won the contract to produce Volta Trucks in a highly competitive bidding process, thanks to the Steyr plant’s 100 years of experience and expertise in the manufacturing of large commercial vehicles, the plant’s advanced manufacturing facilities, and the speed to market guarantee that these advantages bring.
In July 2022, Steyr Automotive further secured a contract for the volume production of Volta Box (Volta’s truck box module). The Volta Box’s various options, such as hydraulic loading platforms, freezers, side loading doors, etc, can be manufactured to order at the Steyr factory. This further promotes vertical integration of production. For customer Volta Trucks, a one-stop-shop at the Steyr plant is possible.
In addition to Volta Trucks, the main customers of Steyr Auto are world-renowned heavy Truck manufacturer MAN Truck & Bus and Austrian local brand Palfinger.
In addition to industrial contract manufacturing (production contract manufacturing) and the development and production of commercial vehicles under its own brand, the third pillar of Steyr’s business model is the “full process” service that its research and development team provides to its customers from initial concept to mass production.
Europe has always been Steyr’s first target market. Steyr is striving to become a market leader in this segment by advancing pure electric and hydrogen commercial vehicles, especially buses. Of course, the new EU ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) regulations have also been incorporated into Steyr’s latest development process.
Responding to the call of the European Union, actively promoting the electrification and hydrogen transformation of urban transportation is the common goal of upstream and downstream manufacturers and suppliers of the Austrian automotive industry chain.