Interesting interview. I would have liked a little more context: What happened to Volta when, why they ran out of money, where they were at in terms of having built stuff (one prototype? 10 pilot programme vehicles? what were they working on next?). I heard that one of their problems was Proterra being a platform/battery supplier and they went bust first. Is that in fact correct - it didn't come up at all?
Good points all. I guess I was looking for more of a what next kinda thing. Proterra was quite important in the whole process and also the speed of growth, the investors had wanted them to keep the hammer down but then called it out of the blue all be it they had been tight for some time. I think they have around 20-25 pilot vehicles with a handful that have been built in the factory that they will use for production. They were a matter a few weeeks from series production, which I guess is why someone has bought them.
Paul, Thank-you for the update on Volta. I always appreciate your work in the International Electric Van market. Keep up the good work on LinkedIn and as the Electric Van Man on UA-cam.
@@electricvanman Good. I am very hopeful of news on better-capacity small vans. I've been sat here for 7 years now waiting for something good enough to build a wild-camping style camper van out of. So far there is the SWB Buzz, which is OK, but what you get is a very expensive, slightly too small, fairly short range machine that doesn't even have bidirectional charging or V2L. It's very hard to spend 50-80 grand on that proposition. The LWB Buzz might just be sufficient (slightly more space, battery and efficiency) but I can;t actually buy one yet, and the tech exists to make something significantly better. The Stella Vita showed something that could really work if it can just be done for
Great update! 👏
Interesting interview. I would have liked a little more context: What happened to Volta when, why they ran out of money, where they were at in terms of having built stuff (one prototype? 10 pilot programme vehicles? what were they working on next?).
I heard that one of their problems was Proterra being a platform/battery supplier and they went bust first. Is that in fact correct - it didn't come up at all?
Good points all. I guess I was looking for more of a what next kinda thing. Proterra was quite important in the whole process and also the speed of growth, the investors had wanted them to keep the hammer down but then called it out of the blue all be it they had been tight for some time. I think they have around 20-25 pilot vehicles with a handful that have been built in the factory that they will use for production. They were a matter a few weeeks from series production, which I guess is why someone has bought them.
Paul, Thank-you for the update on Volta. I always appreciate your work in the International Electric Van market. Keep up the good work on LinkedIn and as the Electric Van Man on UA-cam.
You are always very kind Richard thank you! Been quite here for a bit but some more coming!
@@electricvanman Good. I am very hopeful of news on better-capacity small vans. I've been sat here for 7 years now waiting for something good enough to build a wild-camping style camper van out of. So far there is the SWB Buzz, which is OK, but what you get is a very expensive, slightly too small, fairly short range machine that doesn't even have bidirectional charging or V2L. It's very hard to spend 50-80 grand on that proposition.
The LWB Buzz might just be sufficient (slightly more space, battery and efficiency) but I can;t actually buy one yet, and the tech exists to make something significantly better. The Stella Vita showed something that could really work if it can just be done for