Electric Assisted Vehicles Limited, the Oxfordshire-based micro-mobility manufacturer, has launched an exciting evolution of the highly successful EAV2Cubed ultra-lightweight commercial vehicle, the EAV2Charge. While continuing to supply multiple international logistics companies from DPD to Zedify as well as supporting supermarket deliveries by Asda and Ocado, EAV was approached by Ford Motor Company’s international market-leading micromobility company, Spin, with an interesting engineering challenge.
“I’ve always been a huge fan of the TV animation series, ‘Thunderbirds’.” said Adam Barmby, CEO and Founder of EAV. “In the series, Thunderbird 2 was able to detach its rear container pod and replace it with another which was dedicated to the mission it was going to be sent on. It could deploy a submarine, trucks of all kinds and even a tunnelling vehicle called ‘The Mole’! We set about this challenge by considering what International Rescue would do and how we could develop a rear pod, based on the 2Cubed, which would provide Spin with the vehicle capability they needed. The approach may sound a bit far-fetched but consider what the Ford Transit has been used for over the years and we’re equally as versatile.”
The engineering challenge in question was the development of a support, repair, rescue and possible mobile charging vehicle for the trial of e-scooters which are now being deployed in Basildon in Essex as a partnership between the Ford offshoot and Basildon Council.
“We needed a vehicle that worked with the culture of what we’re trying to achieve with the e-scooter trial.” commented Anthony Jackson, UK General Manager at Spin. “We needed it to be able to carry spare batteries, tools, replacement parts and have space to recover or swap out our e-scooters. It had to be zero emissions, lightweight, easy to operate and as environmentally focused as possible. We’ve known EAV for some time and the 2Cubed was the logical choice, we just needed EAV to convert the rear pod for our specific purpose and that’s exactly what they’ve done with the 2Charge.”
“At the heart of EAV, we’re a product design, development and production company and this challenge from Ford and Spin fitted our capabilities perfectly.” continued Barmby. “The whole EAV2Cubed concept is designed down from a van, not up from a bike and that also applies to the rear box. We’re essentially an ultra-lightweight van so we were able to adapt the load space to Spin’s exact requirements. We see this project as supporting e-scooters and other forms of micro-mobility as it’s a future we both need and really believe in.
The first vehicles are currently in production and are due to be delivered to Essex in the coming weeks to support the current trial which is set to be gradually expanded by Spin and Basildon Council over the Summer.
EAV has developed the 2Charge as a generic unit which can be supplied to support any scooter rental agency worldwide although the rear compartment can be modified for specific purposes at a customer’s request.
“EAV is busy developing a completely new range of future vehicles to further enhance the enormous change for the better we’re already all experiencing in our towns and cities.” said Barmby. “Quieter, lighter, completely emissions free and delightfully anodyne – we’re all discovering a new range of vehicles which are far less threatening and intrusive than we’re all used to. The effect of that will be a huge reduction in road casualties as well as cleaner air and a much less stressful experience within the urban environment with absolutely no reduction in commercial efficiency. It’s simply a better future.”
