Company designs its own cargo bike for city streets as an alternative to diesel vans
Vorboss spent nine months designing the 'Vorspin', which includes a secure cargo area and a workspace for engineers.
London telecoms company Vorboss has designed its own electric cargo bike to support teams in urban areas.
The move is intended to reduce the number of vans on the road in cities, cutting congestion and operating costs.
According to Cycling Electric, the business has initial plans to put 10 Vorspin bikes on the road.
The four-wheel bikes have an enclosed driver area with a secure cargo section complete with pull-out workspaces. The patented design took around nine months to design and build.
Analysis suggests running costs for electric cargo bikes are about £300 a year, including servicing and battery charging, a fraction of the cost of a van. Researchers say fleets could fund a bike solely by avoiding the fines many van drivers incur when driving and parking in congested cities. Leasing companies say fines incurred by drivers have leapt 50% in a year.
The bike was commissioned as part of Vorboss’s work to adapt its fleet operation to the restrictions of London’s Clean Air Zone.
A growing number of businesses nationwide are investigating the potential savings of switching from vehicles to electric bikes for some use cases.
Estate agent Strutt & Parker is trialling a new electric bike fleet in Oxford as an alternative to company cars.
The Vale of Glamorgan Council has partnered with Sustrans on The Travel with Care project, in which the council is purchasing a fleet of 30 e-bikes for use as alternatives to vehicles.
There is growing demand for e-bikes and e-cargo bikes worldwide. The global cargo bike market is estimated to be worth $1.4 billion annually, but could rise to $4.2 billion by 2033.
Fleet interest in e-bikes has prompted national vehicle maintenance giant Kwik-Fit to purchase bike servicing start-up Fettle.
The acquisition comes after trials of joint centres in Bristol and London, with bosses calling the deal an “extraordinary opportunity to accelerate expansion” by leveraging the Kwik-Fit network to support businesses using fleets of e-bikes and e-cargo bikes for 'last mile' solutions.