Siemens Smart Infrastructure and Volta Trucks, a full-electric commercial vehicle manufacturer and services provider, announced a strategic partnership to deliver and scale eMobility charging infrastructure to simplify the transition to fleet electrification, according to a company release. 

The companies signed a letter of intent outlining their plans to jointly seek to deliver turnkey solutions for fleets to transition to zero-emission urban transportation. They will develop end-to-end, integrated, and comprehensive charging, facility upgrading, and energy management solutions.

The offering will be designed to require minimal up-front investment or technical knowledge. The partnership brings together Volta Trucks’ approach to commercial fleet electrification and operational expertise through Truck as a Service (Taas), and Siemens’ experience in software control systems, facility electrification, charging infrastructure, energy management, building equipment, and Siemens Financial Services’ — and third parties’ — financing expertise in smart infrastructure projects.

'Xclerating' Truck Fleet Electrification 

In June 2022, Siemens launched Siemens Xcelerator, a new, open digital business platform featuring a curated portfolio of IoT-enabled hardware and software, an ecosystem of partners, and a marketplace. The objective is to deliver digital solutions for commercial and industrial customers, together with key partners, in an agile "co-creation" approach.

“Through our partnership with Volta Trucks, we intend to co-create Transportation as a Service solutions, and deliver Volta Trucks’ customers higher uptime, a commitment to reliability through performance-based contracts, and reduced energy expenditure," said Thomas Kiessling, chief technology officer of Siemens Smart Infrastructure.

The strategic collaboration will lead, and actively manage, customers through the design of their fleet electrification journey. The technical infrastructure of the installations will be overseen by Siemens, including the hardware and software required to operate the charging and power distribution infrastructure for fleets of Volta Zeros, a purpose-built, full-electric 16-ton commercial vehicle, built for safer and more sustainable cities.

Through Siemens’ performance management platform, the partners will aim to continually optimize the operation to achieve higher uptime at minimum expenditure. Using advanced analytical and simulation models, it will consider factors such as fleet duty cycles, charging times, battery life, optimal energy utilization and costs, and asset management.  

In February of 2021, Proterra signed a deal with Volta Trucks to supply batteries for the Class 7 electric units. 

“I am delighted that Volta Trucks will be working with Siemens to bring industry-leading charging infrastructure solutions for our Truck as a Service customers,” said Essa Al-Saleh, CEO of Volta Trucks. “To deliver the electrification of urban logistics at pace and scale, we need operationally efficient electrification infrastructure aligned to the exact requirement of each fleet...Together, we are confident that our partnership with accelerate the migration to electrification.”

Using a 'Trucks as a Service' Solution  

By establishing the partnership with Volta Trucks and its Truck as a Service solution, Siemens seeks to simplify the transition to fleet electrification. 

What is a Truck as a Service solution? According to Volta Trucks, a truck-as-a-service (TaaS) solution is an end-to-end solution that simplifies, accelerates, and reduces the risks of commercial fleet electrification. At Volta, for a predictable monthly fee, customers have access to the full-electric Volta Zero, its charging infrastructure, and all servicing, maintenance, insurance, and training requirements.

Siemens and Volta Trucks will work together to fully manage the infrastructure, and the power capacity from the grid, or on-premise sustainable power sources. 

Customers will have all depot energy needs captured and managed as part of the design and installation process, ensuring load capacity is increased in line with the sites’ real-time demands. The optimized charging infrastructure will be highly cost-efficient, according to the companies, not only at the point of installation, but through charging algorithms that allow fleets to manage energy costs without compromising routing and service requirements.

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