Electric vehicle startup Volta Trucks has said it’s planning to file for bankruptcy after the collapse of a supplier.

Volta said its manufacturing plans had been significantly impacted after its battery supplier filed for bankruptcy in August

The business, based in Sweden and the UK, was founded in 2019 to accelerate the transition to fully electric trucks and was developing the world’s first purpose-built, fully electric 16-tonne truck for urban distribution.

However, Volta said Tuesday (17 October) that manufacturing plans had been significantly impacted after its battery supplier, Proterra, filed for bankruptcy in August, forcing it to slash the volume of vehicles that it had forecast to produce.

“The uncertainty with our battery supplier also negatively affected our ability to raise sufficient capital in an already challenging capital-raising environment for electric vehicle players,” Volta Trucks said in a statement today.

It’s already filed for bankruptcy in Sweden and said the main trading entity of the group, Volta Trucks Limited, will shortly file for administration in the UK.

The company added that it had received “fantastic feedback” after piloting its truck in five countries in Europe and had a “strong pipeline of highly reputed customers” wanting to introduce the Volta Zero Trucks.

Volta was also working on an 18-tonne vehicle, along with 7.5- and 12-tonne variants under its vision to decarbonise logistics, while developing a ‘Truck as a Service’ bundled financing solution, providing customers with infrastructure, services and support to introduce trucks for a monthly fee. ​

It’s the latest casualty in an increasingly tough market for EV startups; the future of cash-strapped EV maker Arrival remains in the balance and it announced earlier this month that it was laying off more workers to “further reduce” costs.