Wolt, EIT Urban Mobility, and Uny have announced a collaborative initiative aimed at reducing emissions from delivery vehicles in European cities, entitled NGSEED (Next Generation Sustainable Electric-vehicle Ecosystem for Delivery).
The project seeks to address three main urban mobility challenges: reducing last-mile delivery emissions by 90%; cutting operational costs by 50% compared with traditional delivery fleets; and minimising vehicle downtime through battery swaps that take less than one minute.
In a statement, Wolt said that the logistics partnership seeks to create a ‘scalable, zero emission delivery ecosystem in Europe, starting with Warsaw (Poland), Prague (Czechia) and Budapest (Hungary)’.
A ‘universal battery system’, which is compatible with 20 types of vehicles from scooters to cargo vans, will be supported by a network of solar-powered back-up ‘swap stations’ across the pilot cities.
The project expects to cover up to 360,000 kilometres with zero emissions, deliver approximately 72,000 orders, and save around 25 tonnes of CO₂.
‘Empowering cities’
“At Wolt, our sustainability mission has always been to make cities better places to live for everyone,” commented Jamieson Saab, global head of sustainability at Wolt. “While there is rarely a silver bullet when it comes to sustainability solutions, we believe that vehicle-agnostic swappable battery technologies might just be one of them.
“Through this partnership, we are not only supporting our courier partners to shift, but we’re empowering cities to embrace practical solutions that deliver measurable impacts. We’re honoured and proud to partner with both of these organisations to create a strong proof of concept that can be scaled.”
Fleet-as-a-Service
The NGSEED initiative operates as a Fleet-as-a-Service model, inclusive of maintenance and insurance, as well as boasting integrated software for real-time tracking and route optimisation.
Eduard Anghel, head of innovation and vision at Uny, added that the initiative was launched based on a simple premise, that “no individual, no company, no state – can solve urban mobility problems alone. When sustainability is at stake, even the biggest competitors can work together. We’re creating infrastructure that benefits businesses, couriers and cities.” Read more here.
