Volta Trucks, a manufacturer of fully electric commercial vehicles and Cake, the Swedish maker of premium lightweight, electric motorcycles, have announced a collaboration aimed at decarbonizing and decongesting last mile deliveries, while also improving service to end customers.
The first trial, planned in Q1 2023 in Paris will be with the H&M Group. The fully integrated, zero tailpipe emission delivery service from warehouse to end customer uses the most efficient combination of electric trucks and electric two wheelers.
Free to operate in the world’s most rigorous zero-emission zones, the capacious Volta Zero will act as a mobile micro hub, or mini warehouse. Cake’s electric motorcycles will be loaded into the Volta Zero from the distribution center at the start of the working day and deployed into the city center. From there, the Cake electric 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 Volta Zero is free to redeploy to other locations throughout the day or to provide quick-replacement batteries for the Cake motorcycles if necessary, providing an efficient city-wide coverage for deliveries.
Volta Trucks and Cake were both founded to tackle the modern challenges of transportation. Focused on two very different vehicle platforms, yet sharing the same objectives, the integration of the two technologies offers immediate opportunities for retailers serving the rapidly growing e-commerce delivery industry.
“We’ve designed the full-electric Volta Zero to be the cleanest, safest and most efficient urban delivery vehicle,” says Essa Al-Saleh, chief executive officer of Volta Trucks. “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 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,” adds 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 trialling is setting a clear direction for both healthier cities and business advantages.”
