Volta Trucks CEO Urges UK Govt to Extend Ban on Sale of ICE Cars and Vans to Trucks

Following the recent announcement by the UK Government to bring forward the ban on the sale of petrol and diesel-powered cars and vans to 2030, the Volta Trucks, Chief Executive Officer, Rob Fowler has urged the government to further extend this ban to internal combustion engine trucks as well.

Commenting on the announcement, Rob Fowler, Chief Executive Officer of Volta Trucks said that “at Volta Trucks, we welcome today’s announcement by the UK Government to ban the sale of internal combustion engine cars and vans by 2030, and the ambitious plan to implement the world’s second most stringent timeline, after Norway.

Sharing his concern Fowler further added that, “however, we are disappointed that there is no mention in the proposals for the ban to extend to large commercial vehicles. Legacy internal combustion engine trucks are a disproportionately large contributor to greenhouse gasses and air pollution that’s proven to be a significant contributor to many thousands of premature deaths every year in our major towns and cities, where air quality is at its worst.”

Volta Trucks is a start-up full-electric goods vehicle manufacturer and services company, having offices in the UK, France and Sweden and has partnered with a number of industry-leading design and engineering companies to develop the Zero, including Prodrive, Astheimer and Magtec.

“Governments and legislators need to take a holistic approach to the climate change emergency we face and remove all polluting vehicles from our roads. Commercial vehicles form the lifeblood of city centre commerce, so society needs goods vehicles, but it also needs good vehicles: vehicles that are zero emissions. I therefore call on the UK Government to apply the same levels of decarbonisation ambition for commercial vehicles as has been announced today with passenger cars and vans. As a company that is founded on the principle of accelerating change, the transition away from fossil fuels cannot come soon enough, to improve the air quality and environment for all of us,” Rob Fowler commented.

Meanwhile, the first prototype Volta Zero was launched by the company in September 2020, with the first pilot test vehicles due to start evaluation with customers in 2021 ahead of the start of series production in 2022.