Volta Trucks has confirmed customer production orders for the first 300 manufacturing slots of its fully-electric Volta Zero, worth more than €85 million (£75m).

Series production Volta Zeros are due to start rolling off the line of the company’s contract manufacturing facility in Steyr, Austria, in early Q2.

Volta says that the plant is ready to meet the strong customer demand for its purpose-built full-electric medium duty urban delivery truck.

Essa Al-Saleh, CEO of Volta Trucks, says that the company has made “important progress” in the first few weeks of 2023, with 300 customer truck orders confirmed.

He added: “This covers a meaningful portion of our 2023 production targets, before customers have pilot-tested the vehicles.”

Volta Trucks has previously announced pre-orders of 6,500 trucks but said that those pre-orders were in relation to all markets and all models, including those in future years.

The firm orders referenced today, it said, were for the fully-electric 16-tonne Volta Zero for 2023 production and delivery to customers.

Al-Saleh said: “Volta Trucks is poised for a successful first year of sales and production. We are confident and focused on delivering on our strategic ambitions and purpose to decarbonise and improve the safety of city-centres.”

The Volta Zero is a purpose-built fully-electric 16-tonne vehicle, with a pure-electric range of 150-200 kms (95–125 miles).