Deutsche Post expands StreetScooter production

Deutsche Post expands StreetScooter production(dpdhl.com)

169 points by wibr 9 years ago | 63 comments

Quanttek 9 years ago |

In my hometown they (i.e. the small "Work" carrier) are carrying out mail for about a year now. Super small, silent, pretty good interior, though the "Work" only has a range of ~80km. That#s perfectly fine for urban areas but they will probably find little use in rural areas.

Some more background: A few years ago, the Post wanted to slowly transition to electric cars but couldn't find a car manufacturer (IIRC they asked Daimler and BMW) to produce an electric carrier even close to their specification so they basically said "fuck it" and founded their own little startup-like manufacturer

_ph_ 9 years ago | |

I would assume that the 80km range was designed specifically to best match their needs. It is probably the optimal range for having the cheapest vehicle that can perform to their needs - and it might be more interesting for them to have more smaller districts anyway, as the storage capacity of the vehicle is another consideration.

ygra 9 years ago | | |

I'd also guess that the vast majority of deliveries are in urban areas as opposed to rural ones (in Germany at least), so it makes sense to prioritise that.

esra 9 years ago | |

Not entirely, StreetScooter was founded in 2010 and was bought by Deutsche Post in 2014.

awjr 9 years ago | |

So 'basic' electric vehicles have lower manufacturing hurdles to overcome?

LordHeini 9 years ago | | |

No the vehicle has to fit their specs which are rather specific. Some specs are seemingly "low tec" in some areas but not in others. For example range:a lot of routes do not exceed 50 km but standard manufacturers cramp as much range as possible into their vehicles thus driving the weight and price up. A delivery vehicle like this does not need the range but good luck telling that your average car manufacturer who also has to think about other customers (who usually care a lot about range).

Then the vehicle has a hight floor making it back friendly for the delivery person which is something unwanted in your average delivery truck. It limits the height of the goods you can transport but the Post does not deliver packages that huge.

This is a special vehicle for a certain purpose and no commerial manufacturer had interest in developing something like this.

frik 9 years ago | | |

Which hurdles? Electric vehicles are a solved problem. It's just the battery and the electronic to charge the battery were innovation is really needed to extend the reach. In NYC around 1910 all Cabs were full electric, the first official car of an Us president was an electric one. The post services in various countries used full electric cars up to the 1970s. Overall an electric vehicle has less parts and is simpler to design and produce. In China you see already many electric cars and even big Chinese built all electric SUVs. It seems like certain manufacturer of the old age will face reality very soon. There will be a disruption of the market, and they waited for decades and now they will loose a lot of market share.

Sanddancer 9 years ago | | |

Not really basic. It's being designed as an urban delivery vehicle, so built for lots of starts and stops, carrying a half a ton of cargo, and be able to maneuver city streets. Those sorts of conditions mean you're going to need a vehicle with a beefy chassis, beefy suspension, engine with a lot of torque and to be comfortable to get in and out of several dozen times a day. Those really aren't all that basic; you're building a freight platform with a wheelbase that's significantly smaller than the traditional freight vehicle. The US postal service is looking at building a similar vehicle to replace their iconic Grumman LLVs, and the entire cost of the program is expected to be into the billions of dollars. You'd be surprised how complicated "basic" can be.

HenryBemis 9 years ago | | |

"Hurdles" is too ambiguous and vague. I think the issue was cost and not application of existing technologies.

If specs do not require for a 800km autonomy, max speed of 170km/h and no leather seats, no auto-pilot, no high-end stereo system, and so on, then yes ("money" or lack of IT is a big "hurdle".. no?)

rodgerd 9 years ago | | |

The Post can make an objective decision about how much range they actually need, while regular carmakers have to built range vastly higher than most buyers will ever use, because those buyers will worry about whether they'll need it once a year.

awjr 9 years ago |

This is rather brilliant, developing a series of electric vehicle specifically for their operations, only to find that these answer the problems for many delivery services around europe.

Vehicle website: http://www.streetscooter.eu/

mxfh 9 years ago | |

Don't forget to checkout their behemoth pedelecs at 57 and 86 kg.

http://www.streetscooter.eu/modelle/work-s

http://www.streetscooter.eu/modelle/work-m

awjr 9 years ago | | |

No idea why they are single speed. Have these people not heard of hills ;)

A local company uses eBullit, but can only get about 4 hours out of the 500w battery due to hills.

I could see an advantage in offering a 1000w light-moped version however these would be illegal on cycle paths.

Grue3 9 years ago | | |

These huge storage boxes look like they would severely mess with balance. I can already feel the difference in maneuverability when I put a grocery bag in front of a bike, now imagine 30kg of mail in there.

ealexhudson 9 years ago | |

It would be interesting to see if pick-up of these vehicles does take off. Frustratingly, at least in the UK, we already had this infrastructure for many years - we had "Milk floats" that were used to deliver fresh dairy around local neighbourhoods. In the late 60s we arguably had the majority of worldwide EVs, in exactly this role.

Clearly they were not particularly fast vehicles and the range wasn't necessarily massive, but they did the job and were used for a variety of tasks (most operators expanded from diary to a range of different, fresh, produce).

What killed them off - they are extremely rare now - was the rise of supermarkets and out-of-town shopping. I guess, though, that supermarkets won not from convenience but choice, and that internet shopping retains the choice element but now convenience could win out.

london888 9 years ago | | |

We used to have a milkman delivery but it seemed crazy to do this while going past much cheaper milk in the supermarket or even the corner shop.

Asdfbla 9 years ago |

It's very telling and somewhat disappointing that the Deutsche Post (not a traditional car maker) can get a fleet of electric cars up and running while traditional German automotive industry is still delaying as long as possible, showing off futuristic (and ugly) design studies instead of putting electric cars on the road.

usrusr 9 years ago | |

But it's made by the German automotive industry, just not designed and assembled by any of the existing front-end brands. The underlying component supplier network (and workforce skill pool) is the same. Tapping into that network might be difficult if you are some nameless, shaky startup, but if you are DHL they will be very willing to talk to you.

germanier 9 years ago | | |

Understanding this is key to getting the German automative industry (or even the whole German economy). Your shiny new car model needs cylindrical fasteners (just as all do)? There is a company with 350 employees that does only that and can deliver just on time. Same with any other little component in a car.

Tepix 9 years ago |

It's disappointing that the Sinclair X-1 (http://newatlas.com/sinclair-x1-pedal-electric/16838/) never made it to the market. I think there's a niche for a mass produced pedelec with a shell.

awjr 9 years ago | |

The problem is that these types of wide pedelec do not cope with the way many councils provide cycle infrastructure requiring users to mix with cars. At which point being in a wider pedelec stops you filtering traffic and you just become 'stuck' in traffic.

Another issue is parking, with many bicycles, you can find a lampost/sheffield stand and just lock them to it, this seems to need a parking space.

m0nty 9 years ago | |

You can get fully-functional velomobiles which are basically "pedelec with a shell" but far from being mass-produced (I'm guessing you probably know this anyway). I'd love to have one but they are expensive and (in the UK) I'm sure some drivers would be very bullying or dangerous around them (it's bad enough sometimes on a bike). In the Netherlands, a different story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5x1Zw5kovA

pjc50 9 years ago |

Bit of electric delivery vehicle history that seems to be UK-specific: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_float

They were gradually phased out from the 90s onwards due to the decline in demand for doorstep delivery. Maybe we'll see a comeback?

bjackman 9 years ago | |

We had these where I grew up, all the way to the 2010s. They were slow and had limited range but that isn't a problem for milk delivery which is on suburban roads in the middle of the night.

However they were surprisingly noisy - I was a mild insomniac and always knew when 2.30AM came round because I could hear the milk float buzzing past outside.

Gravityloss 9 years ago |

I think there's been a lot of projects like this around the world? In Finland there have been the Elcat electric delivery vans for the local post office and others since 1990. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcat_Electric_Vehicles

You see them around every now and then in private use, but of course the technology is outdated by now.

e2e4 9 years ago |

in Japan a delivery with a bicycle (for the last miles) is quite popular and works quite well: http://mamabicycle.blogspot.jp/2011/05/kuroneko-eco-delivery...