Just right

One of the questions that pops-up when you want to move goods from A to B is: how big does your vehicle need to be? Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles’ (VWCV’s) answer is: the right size for the job at hand.

Too big is inefficient, and so is too small, but 3,54 m might be just right … Especially for an economical, highly flexible little city delivery vehicle, which is just as suitable for service technicians as it is for couriers, pizza deliveries or social services.

This pintsized mover dubbed the “e-load up!” is based on the VW “e-up!”.  It made its debut at this year’s International Motor Show, in Frankfurt, when VWCV presented this idea under the theme of “urban commercial mobility”.

It weighs 1 164 kg and can carry 306 kg of cargo (enough for many pizzas or parcels) in its 1 400 litre “trunk”, offering seating for the driver and a fold-up version for a passenger.

The e-load up! is powered by an almost silent electric motor, which delivers a maximum power output of 60 kW and continual output of 40 kW. As with all electric motors, its maximum torque of 210 Nm is available from the very first revolution, enabling it to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 12,4 seconds – before it reaches its top speed of 130 km/h.

The lithium-ion battery in the e-load up! is integrated into the floor and has a storage capacity of 18,7 kWh, which – thanks to its low weight – enables the vehicle to travel up to 160 km in a single charge.

According to VWCV, the rationale behind this petite city slicker is that a very small van, which carries correspondingly small loads, is able to operate more efficiently than a larger vehicle, with the operator deploying a fleet of sister vehicles if more needs to be moved. “The key idea here is collective intelligence,” notes the company. “The advantages are obvious: small, agile vehicles are ideal for large, congested cities.”

But the advantages keep on piling up. “For reasons of efficiency, conventional delivery vehicles are not dispatched from the logistics centre until they are full to capacity,” says VWCV. “This means that the first 10 parcels have to wait for the next 100 before they can be delivered. That’s not the case with the e-load up!.”

The company says that the e-load up! (or a version thereof) can be made available soon – depending on demand. However, the possibility of this gets heightened as Volkswagen offers this mover in any of the passenger car version’s standard power units; from a petrol engine to a natural gas one … Making it the perfect urban partner for most any metropolitan area.