Volta Trucks, the leading and disruptive full-electric commercial vehicle manufacturer and services provider, has appointed Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karl Viktor Schaller to its Board of Directors. His appointment will be confirmed at the company’s forthcoming AGM.
Karl Viktor Schaller has held many Executive and Board positions within the automotive industry. Most recently, between 2014 and 2019, he was Executive Vice President, Motorcycle Engineering with BMW AG. Before joining BMW AG, he was a Member of the Executive Board and Chief Technology Officer of MAN Truck and Bus, with responsibility for Engineering & Purchasing. In this role, he was responsible for product development, purchasing and planning. Prior to this, Dr. Schaller was Director of the Heavy Trucks business unit at MAN, after having headed various other departments. In these other roles, he led the development of alternative drive systems, including batteries, hybrids, natural gas, hydrogen in internal combustion and fuel cell applications, as well as advanced driver assistance systems, and heavy trucks.
He is currently an Honorary Professor at the Technical University of Munich. He holds a diploma and a doctorate (Dr.-Ing., magna cum laude) in mechanical engineering from the Technical University of Munich, having been awarded an honorary professor in 2007. He is a Board Member of Westport Fuel Systems Inc. in Canada.
Announcing the appointment of Dr. Schaller, Douglas Snyder, President of Luxor Capital Group and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Volta Trucks, said:
“I am delighted to welcome Karl Viktor Schaller to the Board of Directors of Volta Trucks. His arrival coincides with significant, positive, engineering and manufacturing developments for the company, as we move into the production of the first full-electric Volta Zero prototype vehicles on our production line in Steyr, Austria. And within just a few months, Volta Trucks will start production of customer vehicles, transitioning from a start-up to a vehicle manufacturer. Karl Viktor brings a wealth of engineering and product development experience to the Board that will help us support the Executive team achieve its ambitious goals, and within industry-leading timescales.”
Karl Viktor Schaller continued;
“I am excited to join the Board of Volta Trucks and support the company and the other Board members in our journey to a new and carbon-neutral urban delivery system. Having worked for Volta Trucks as a consultant to support the homologation process, I have seen the challenges and outstanding solutions to bring this all to a quality-based production process. In these areas, I am eager to support with 30 years of automotive experience.”
Ends.
Editor’s notes.
About the Volta Zero.
The Volta Zero is the world’s first purpose-built full-electric 16-tonne vehicle designed for urban logistics, reducing the environmental impact of freight deliveries in city centres. Designed from the ground up with an operating pure-electric range of 150 – 200 kms (95 – 125 miles), the Volta Zero will eliminate an estimated 1.2M tonnes of CO2 by 2025.
Safety is also at the heart of Volta Trucks, with its ambition of producing the safest trucks for our cities. The Volta Zero was designed for electric from the outset, which facilitates a step-change in vehicle, driver and pedestrian safety. Thanks to the removal of the internal combustion engine, the operator of a Volta Zero sits in a central driving position, with a much lower seat height than a conventional truck. This combination, plus a glass house-style cab design, gives the driver a wide 220-degrees of visibility, minimising dangerous blind spots. The prototype Volta Zero was launched in September 2020, with the first vehicles starting to be evaluated by customers in late-2022.
In November 2021, Volta Trucks announced Europe’s largest purchase of full-electric trucks with DB Schenker’s order of 1,470 vehicles. This followed Petit Forestier’s order of 1,000 Volta Zeros. Volta Trucks now has a total order bank of around 6,500 vehicles, with an order bank value of circa €1.4 billion.
About Volta Trucks.
Volta Trucks is a scale-up full-electric commercial vehicle manufacturer and services company. Volta Trucks’ Head Office is in Stockholm, Sweden, with its engineering led from the UK, and forthcoming manufacturing facility in Steyr, Austria. The company also has sales teams across France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, and the UK. Volta Trucks is partnering with a number of global leaders in the supply chain for the development and production of the Volta Zero, at pace and scale.
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