Electric commercial-vehicle startup Volta Trucks and maker of premium electric motorcycles Cake have announced a collaboration aimed at decarbonizing and decongesting last-mile deliveries while improving service to end customers. The first trial, planned in Q1 2023 in Paris, will be with the H&M Group, the fashion and design family of brands and businesses. The delivery service from warehouse to end customer will use the most efficient combination of electric trucks and electric two-wheelers.
Volta Zero trucks will act as a mobile micro-hub or mini-warehouse. Cake’s electric motorcycles will be loaded into the truck from the distribution center at the start of the working day and deployed into the city center. From there, the Cake e-motorcycles will deliver the last mile of parcels to customers in the fastest and most sustainable way, without impacting the traffic or struggling with parking. The Zero is free to redeploy to other locations throughout the day or to provide quick-replacement batteries for the Cake motorcycles if necessary, providing efficient city-wide coverage for deliveries.
“Most of our customers are using trucks to deliver from out-of-town warehouses to inner city stores,” said Essa Al-Saleh, Chief Executive Officer of Volta Trucks. “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-center environments.”
“As the majority of today’s last-mile delivery chains will soon be banned in many of the world’s largest cities, world-leading e-commerce consumer brands need to engage in future-proof concepts now,” added Stefan Ytterborn, Founder and CEO of Cake. “Solutions need to be developed to offer lower emissions and less congestion while benefiting from far more efficient deliveries all the way to the end customer. This innovative mobility ecosystem that the three brands are trialing is setting a clear direction for both healthier cities and business advantages.”
The partners say that they were both founded to tackle modern transportation challenges. Focused on two very different vehicle platforms, yet sharing the same objectives, they believe the integration of the two technologies offers immediate opportunities for retailers serving the rapidly growing e-commerce delivery industry.
Volta Trucks’ has its headquarters in Stockholm, with engineering led from the UK and a forthcoming manufacturing facility in Steyr, Austria. The company is partnering with several global leaders in the supply chain to quickly scale the development and production of Zero.
Volta says its Zero is the world’s first purpose-built full-electric 16-t (17.6-ton) vehicle designed for urban logistics, reducing the environmental impact of freight deliveries in city centers. It has a pure-electric range of 150-200 km (95-125 mi), helping to eliminate an estimated 1.2 million t (1.3 million ton) of CO2 by 2025.
The truck was designed for electric power from the outset, which it says facilitates a step-change in vehicle, driver, and pedestrian safety. The absence of an internal combustion engine means that the operator of the truck sits in a central driving position with a much lower seat height than a conventional truck. The combination, plus a glass house-style cab design, gives the driver a wide, 220 degrees of visibility.
The prototype Volta Zero was launched in September 2020. In November 2021, Volta announced Europe’s largest purchase of full-electric trucks with DB Schenker’s order of 1470 vehicles. This followed Petit Forestier’s order of 1000 Zeros. Volta Trucks now has an order bank of around 6500 vehicles with a value of about €1.4 billion. The first trucks are expected to be operating with customers in late 2022.
Cake’s model range currently consists of three platforms—the off-roader Kalk, modular utility bike Ösa, and urban commuter Makka. An extensive range of accessories and configurations means that the company can address a wide matrix of users and applications including commercial use for last-mile delivery and other short-haul urban transportation.
The Swedish-based maker of premium electric motorcycles is collaborating with European energy company Vattenfall on the Cleanest Dirt Bike Ever project, which aims to produce the cleanest motorcycle possible by 2025.
Fans of Cake around the world are beginning to get better access to the brand’s products. The company just opened its first site outside Europe in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Venice. The new space will also serve as the headquarters for Cake’s North American sales and marketing.
Volta and Cake are partnering with H&M on electric last-mile delivery.
