Viktor Schaller
Volta Trucks, manufacturer and service provider for fully electric commercial vehicles, has appointed Prof. Dr.-Ing. Karl Viktor Schaller to the company’s board of directors. His appointment will be confirmed at the upcoming Annual General Meeting.
Karl Viktor Schaller has held many management and board positions in the automotive industry. Most recently, he was Executive Vice President, Motorcycle Engineering at BMW AG from 2014 to 2019. Before joining BMW AG, he was a member of the Executive Board and Chief Technology Officer of MAN Truck and Bus, responsible for technology and purchasing. In this role, he was responsible for product development, purchasing and planning. Prior to this, Dr Schaller was Head of the Heavy Trucks Business Unit at MAN, having headed various other departments. In these other roles, he also led the development of alternative drive systems, including batteries, hybrid, natural gas, hydrogen in combustion engines and fuel cells, as well as the development of advanced driver assistance systems and heavy trucks.
He is currently an honorary professor at the Technical University of Munich. He holds a diploma and a doctorate (Dr.-Ing., magna cum laude) in mechanical engineering, also from the Technical University of Munich, and was appointed Honorary Professor in 2007. He is a board member of Westport Fuel Systems Inc. in Canada.
Karl Viktor Schaller added: “I am delighted to join the board of Volta Trucks and to support the company and the other board members on the way to a new and CO2-neutral urban delivery system. Having already worked for Volta Trucks as a consultant supporting the homologation process, I am familiar with both the challenges and the world-class solutions that come with integrating it all into a quality-driven production process. It is in these areas that I would like to support the company with my 30 years of experience in the automotive industry.”
The Volta Zero is the world’s first all-electric 16-tonne commercial vehicle designed specifically for inner-city goods transport, reducing the environmental impact of freight deliveries in city centres. Designed from the ground up with an all-electric range of 150 to 200 km, the Volta Zero is estimated to save 1.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions by 2025. In November 2021, Volta Trucks announced the largest purchase of all-electric trucks in Europe, with DB Schenker ordering 1,470 vehicles. This was followed by Petit Forestier’s order of 1,000 Volta Zero vehicles. www.voltatrucks.com
