Production of Volta’s trucks to restart at contract manufacturer Steyr

No details are given in the brief official announcement, but according to ORF Upper Austria, production is to be resumed in May. The plan is to produce 500 electric trucks in Steyr this year and 2,000 next year. In addition, a new subsidiary of Steyr Automotive called Steyr Automotive E-Truck GmbH is to be founded, which will take over the production of electric trucks for Volta.

As reported, Volta Trucks had to file for insolvency in October, including both the Swedish unit and the Group’s most important trading company, Volta Trucks Limited, based in England. The background to this was the insolvency of Volta’s battery supplier Proterra in August, which led to a “significant impact on Volta’s production plans”. The de facto halt to production then meant that Volta was unable to raise new money in an already difficult capital environment. A hoped-for quick agreement with an investor could not be reached in October. In December, however, the insolvency administrators from Alvarez & Marsal Europe presented a deal with Luxor Capital.

The hedge fund bought the British business and assets of Volta Trucks and founded its own subsidiary, Volta Commercial Vehicles Limited. According to media reports at the time, however, most of the 600 or so British employees of Volta Trucks had to fear for their jobs despite the takeover.

Volta was founded in Sweden and also has its headquarters there, but its business operations are mainly based in England. Hedge fund Luxor Capital was one of the largest investors in the electric truck manufacturer even before Volta Trucks went bankrupt. Luxor Capital increased its stake in Volta Trucks again in February 2022 – although the exact investment amount or shares were not disclosed at the time.

With the 16-tonne version of the Volta Zero, which has been in series production since April, Volta Trucks has a real asset. However, it is not yet clear where the all-important battery will come from in future. It is possible that it will continue to come from Proterra: In November, the Volvo Group acquired Proterra’s battery division. The Swedes are taking over the development centre for battery modules and packs in California as well as Proterra’s battery assembly plant in South Carolina, which opened in January 2023. However, it is not yet known exactly how Proterra will be continued and integrated into the Volvo structure.

According to an earlier Reuters report, Volta Trucks had raised a total of around 460 million euros from investors and taken orders for more than 5,000 trucks prior to its insolvency.

ots.at, ooe.orf.at (both in German)