Volta Trucks, the leading and disruptive full-electric commercial vehicle manufacturer and services provider, has completed a rigorous programme of hot weather testing of its full-electric 16-tonne Volta Zero.

Taking place over six weeks at the purpose-built Nardo Technical Centre in Southern Italy, the hot weather testing programme was designed to ensure that the Volta Zero will deliver outstanding levels of reliability and durability when series production of customer specification vehicles starts early next year.

The Vehicle Development team at Volta Trucks completed more than 2,500km of customer-focused driving cycles at motorway, town and city speeds. Undertaken in temperatures of up to 39 degrees Celsius during the day and 28 degrees Celsius at night, the air conditioning system and thermal management of the battery and powertrain of the Volta Zero have been fully evaluated and pushed to the extremes to ensure optimum operational reliability.

Although unlikely to be experienced in its natural urban surroundings, testing has also been undertaken on coarse dustier surfaces, which provided an even tougher challenge for the Volta Zero’s chassis, pushing the vehicle’s suspension, steering, traction control and braking system beyond the expected limit of normal customer usage. In addition, dust accumulation was studied for cabin and load box ingress, as well as how it sits on components such as lights, wipers and panels.

Ian Collins, Chief Product Officer of Volta Trucks, said: “The completion of our hot weather testing programme marks another important milestone in the development and delivery of the Volta Zero. The testing allows our engineers to incorporate their latest findings in the series production of customer specification vehicles, ensuring the Volta Zero will deliver a reliable and durable experience for future customers.”