Siemens and Volta Trucks plan faster electrification of commercial vehicles
Siemens Smart Infrastructure and Volta Trucks, a manufacturer of all-electric commercial vehicles and provider of related services, have announced a strategic partnership to provide and scale charging infrastructure for e-vehicles to make the transition to fleet electrification easier. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding on their cooperation, in which they will jointly provide turnkey solutions for fleets to enable the transition to zero-emission urban transport through an end-to-end, integrated and comprehensive offering of charging, refurbishment and energy management capabilities.
According to Siemens, the offering will be designed to require minimal upfront investment and no major technical knowledge. The partnership combines Volta Trucks' approach to commercial fleet electrification and operational expertise through Truck as a Service with Siemens' global experience in software control systems, building electrification, charging infrastructure and energy management, and building equipment, as well as the financing expertise that Siemens Financial Services - and third-party providers - can provide for smart infrastructure projects. The plan is to provide infrastructure for complete electrification, tailored to the operational needs of Volta Trucks' customers.
In June this year, Siemens already launched Siemens Xcelerator, a new open digital business platform consisting of a curated portfolio of IoT-enabled hardware and software, a partner ecosystem and a marketplace. The aim is to use an agile co-creation approach to offer digital solutions for commercial and industrial customers together with partners.
As part of the strategic cooperation, customers will be accompanied and actively supported in the electrification of their fleets. The technical infrastructure of the facilities will be managed by Siemens, including the hardware and software required to operate the charging and power distribution infrastructure for Volta Zero fleets. The Volta Zero is the world's first all-electric 16-tonne commercial vehicle built specifically for safer and more sustainable cities.
Through Siemens' performance management platform, the partners intend to continuously optimise the entire operation to achieve higher availability at a minimal cost. This optimisation approach will be based on advanced analytics and simulation models, taking into account factors such as fleet operating cycles, charging times, battery life, optimal energy use and costs, and asset management.
"I am delighted that Volta Trucks will be working with Siemens to provide charging infrastructure solutions for our Truck-as-a-Service customers," says Essa Al-Saleh, Chief Executive Officer of Volta Trucks. "To drive the electrification of urban logistics quickly and at scale, we need operationally efficient electrification infrastructure that is precisely tailored to the needs of each fleet. At Siemens, we have a partner that offers precisely the innovative technical solutions that our customers expect. We are confident that, working in partnership, we can accelerate the transition to electrification."
By partnering with Volta Trucks and its Truck-as-a-Service solution to revolutionise ownership, financing and maintenance of commercial fleets, Siemens aims to support the delivery of turnkey transportation solutions to make the transition to fleet electrification easier. Customers are expected to see several benefits as a result.
Together, Siemens and Volta Trucks aim to manage infrastructure and power capacity from the grid or their own sustainable energy sources. The customer's total energy demand is therefore to be captured and managed at the planning and installation stage, so that load capacity is increased according to the real-time needs of the site. The optimised charging infrastructure shall be cost-efficient, not only during installation but also during operation, as charging algorithms enable the management of energy costs without affecting routing and service requirements.