Volta Trucks, a full-electric commercial vehicle manufacturer and services provider, is expanding its UK-based research and development capabilities. This comes as the company delivers a programme of prototype full-electric 16-tonne commercial vehicles for customer evaluation in London and Paris by mid-2022, ahead of series production beginning before the end of next year.

The expanding R&D team is primarily based near Reading, close to where the London vehicles will operate. The scalable offices can currently accommodate over 110 engineers working on the world’s first purpose-built full electric 16-tonne commercial vehicle, as well as the forthcoming 7.5, 12 and 19-tonne variants.

The team is networked to UK vehicle testing facilities where the company’s first prototype vehicles are already running, and the forthcoming manufacturing plant in Steyr, Austria. It is also connected to the company’s headquarters in Stockholm and regional offices in Paris and other European cities.

Ambitious recruitment drive
Volta Trucks has embarked on an ambitious recruitment drive to accelerate the development of the full-electric Volta Zero. Having started 2021 with a handful of employees, headcount now stands at over 150 as Volta Trucks continues to search for talented and progressively minded engineers, and industrial and commercial experts to bring vehicles to market on time.

The ambition is to have more than 280 employees by the end of 2021, with over 70 open positions currently advertised on www.voltatrucks.com/careers and additional roles being frequently added.

Essa Al-Saleh, CEO of Volta Trucks, said; “As a nimble and agile start-up organisation, in 2020 and 2021, we designed and developed the Volta Zero demonstrator vehicle, introduced it to the marketplace, took it on a six-centre European roadshow, and took thousands of pre-orders for trucks, all with a small team working remotely through the pandemic.

“We now have a UK home for our engineers, close to where our Pilot Fleet vehicles will soon operate with customers in London. The UK also has a long history of engineering excellence, and this has already proven to be a great source of talent for us, but we now need to accelerate the growth of the company.

“With our innovative product and ground-breaking approach to customers and vehicle ownership, we are looking for the brightest, forward-thinking and entrepreneurial experts to join the Volta Trucks team and help us on our journey towards a safer and more sustainable future for commercial vehicles.”