Electric truck manufacturer Volta Trucks and Swedish electric motorcycle developer Cake have announced plans to further decarbonise urban centres by electrifying last-mile delivery options.
The two companies hope to do this by developing an electric mobile ‘micro hub’ for last-mile deliveries, with plans to start the first customer trials with clothing and home goods retailer H&M Group in Paris in Q1 2023.
From there, the companies’ zero-emission delivery service will transport goods from the warehouse to the end customer, using what the partners describe as ‘the most efficient combination of electric trucks and electric two wheelers’.
The planned hub, named Volta Zero, will be designed to act as a micro hub or a mini warehouse, into which Cake’s electric motorcycles will be loaded from the distribution centre at the start of the working day. They will then be deployed into the city centre.
From there, Cake plans on sending its electric motorcycles to deliver the last mile of parcels to customers in what it hopes it will be a faster and more sustainable way. One idea behind this is to have a reduced impact on traffic and eliminate parking struggles, thereby decongesting city streets.
Essa Al-Saleh, CEO of Volta Trucks, said; “We’ve designed the full-electric Volta Zero to be the cleanest, safest and most efficient urban delivery vehicle.
“Most of our customers are using trucks to deliver from out-of-town warehouses to inner city stores. But as a forward-thinking brand, we’ve always sought innovative partners to deliver new and industry-redefining solutions.
“The partnership between Volta Trucks and Cake will showcase how a combination of zero tailpipe emission transport solutions can bring benefit to brands and customers, such as the H&M Group, and city centre environments.”
What’s more, the two EV firms hope to free up Volta Zero once it has unloaded vehicles, so it can redeploy to other locations throughout the day or to provide replacement batteries for the Cake motorcycles to provide more efficient, city-wide coverage for deliveries.
