Following the recent announcement by the UK government to bring forward the ban on the sale of petrol and diesel-powered cars and vans to 2030, the Chief Executive Officer of Volta Trucks, Rob Fowler, has urged the government to extend the ban to IC engine commercial vehicles.

Rob Fowler said: “At Volta Trucks, we welcome today’s announcement by the UK Government to ban the sale of internal combustion engine cars and vans by 2030, and the ambitious plan to implement the world’s second most stringent timeline, after Norway. However, we are disappointed that there is no mention in the proposals for the ban to extend to large commercial vehicles. Legacy internal combustion engine trucks are a disproportionately large contributor to greenhouse gases and air pollution that’s proven to be a significant contributor to many thousands of premature deaths every year in our major towns and cities, where air quality is at its worst.

“Governments and legislators need to take a holistic approach to the climate change emergency we face and remove all polluting vehicles from our roads. Commercial vehicles form the lifeblood of city centre commerce, so society needs goods vehicles, but it also needs good vehicles: vehicles that are zero emissions. I therefore call on the UK government to apply the same levels of decarbonisation ambition for commercial vehicles as has been announced today with passenger cars and vans. As a company that is founded on the principle of accelerating change, the transition away from fossil fuels cannot come soon enough, to improve the air quality and environment for all of us.”

Volta Zero zero emission truck
In September 2020, Volta Trucks revealed the new Volta Zero – its first vehicle and the world’s first purpose-built full-electric 16-tonne commercial vehicle designed specifically for inner-city parcel and freight distribution. From launch, the Volta Zero will be a significant contributor to the future vision of zero-emission cities all over the world.

The Volta Zero will offer a pure-electric range of 150 – 200km (95 – 125 miles). This is more than sufficient for the daily use of a ‘last-mile’ delivery vehicle and has been validated using simulations with a full payload.

The Volta Zero will start undertaking operator trials with some of Europe’s largest parcel delivery and logistics companies in H1-2021. Orders have already been taken from companies wanting to secure the first customer-specification vehicles, which are due to be delivered when production starts in 2022.