Volta Trucks has revealed the first of its new ‘Volta Trucks Hubs’ that will serve as the base for its Truck-as-a-Service operations.
Customer evaluations of the Volta Zero are set to begin in the middle of the year and prospective buyers will be able to get their trucks maintained and routinely serviced at the locations.
The first hub is set to be built in Bonneuil-sur-Marne, a southeastern Paris suburb and will serve the important logistics centres of Rungis, Orly, Créteil and Bonneuil where the first Volta Trucks’ customers already have distribution warehouses. Another hub is set to be built in London soon.
“The confirmation of our first Truck as a Service Hub is a significant milestone on our journey to the production of our vehicles. Uptime is critical for our customers, and the forthcoming opening of this facility gives our customers the confidence to know where their vehicles will be maintained to the highest standards,” says Casper Norden, Volta’s Chief Fleet Solutions Officer.
The Paris hub will have eight workshop bays for the routine servicing of the trucks, including new specialised equipment needed to keep the fully electric vehicles well maintained in order to minimise downtime.
The Volta Zero
The hub will also serve as admin offices and a call centre that will provide a 24-hour year-round interface between customers and Volta’s team of technical and commercial staff. A Volta Trucks Academy training centre will also be located at the 5,000m2 plot to help train drivers on the new vehicles.
“[The hub] also gives us a base for our Volta Trucks Academy training school for drivers, sales teams and the technicians who will work on the vehicles. It gives us a Hub and a home in every market, with Paris as our first. I look forward to rolling out similar facilities in London soon, and all of our other European launch cities in 2023,” says Norden.
The company is also planning to build hubs in Madrid, Milan, the Rhine-Ruhr region of Germany, and the Randstad region of the Netherlands. All of these sites are designed to cover large metropolitan areas but retain good access to major highways and existing infrastructure. Deliveries for the Paris site, for instance, will be able to reach the A86 Périphérique and the N406 road to the Haropa port with river and train terminals.
Volta says that the network of hubs will be a “critical enabler” of the company’s Truck-as-a-Service offer that wants to change the way companies finance, service, and maintain their fleets.
“Truck-as-a-Service will accelerate the adoption of electric commercial vehicles by delivering a frictionless and hassle-free way to electrify fleets, while de-risking the migration for Fleet Operators,” said the company in a statement.
“Truck-as-a-Service supports every step of the electrification migration by offering a single, affordable, monthly fee that funds the use of a full-electric Volta Zero vehicle, and all of its servicing, maintenance, insurance and training requirements. It will even provide a replacement Volta Zero when needed, maximising the uptime and operational efficiency of the vehicle.”
Last month, Auto Futures spoke to founder and Executive Chairman Carl-Magnus Norden to learn more about the company’s approach to design and why he is “surprised” that more companies are not copying Volta.
Keyword: Volta Reveals New Hub for Truck Servicing, Maintenance, and Sales