Electric micro-mobility company scales up following funding round
21 February 2022
Micro-mobility company Electric Assisted Vehicles (EAV) will scale up operations, following the completion of a funding round led by private equity firm H+ Partners. The UK-based company focuses on sustainable mid- to last-mile logistics.
Autovista24 contacted EAV to confirm how much was raised, but the company did not disclose the financial details. However, the funds must be significant given the company’s development plans. It wants to increase production capacity, deliver customer orders, recruit staff, as well as scale its engineering, research, and development capabilities.
Commercial applications
With this latest injection of capital, EAV will bring new products to the market more quickly. It is already looking to adapt its products to specific customer needs. EAV currently provides vehicles to the likes of DPD, Asda, Ocado Zoom, Zedify, Urb-it, and LaundryHeap.
The firm has gone out of its way to demonstrate the applicability of its products, carrying out commercial trials across several sectors in the last two and a half years. These include logistics, facilities maintenance, and waste management, Adam Barmby, founder, and CEO of EAV explained. ‘Our experiences and subsequent vehicle orders have proved beyond doubt the efficiency and capabilities of micro-mobility solutions for urban commercial and passenger transport,’ he said.
Challenging the commercial-vehicle status quo with a greater focus on sustainability made EAV an ideal company for H+ Partners to work with. The investment firm focuses on businesses that can accelerate decarbonisation, as it gains further experience with electromobility, battery technology, energy-storage systems, and hydrogen.
‘We are delighted to have worked closely with the team at H+ Partners on this funding round, which allows us to keep pace with the growth and demands of the eCargo market and complete the development of our unique mid-mile urban van solution, Lincs,’ said Nigel Gordon-Stewart, executive chairman of EAV.
Sustainable micro-mobility
Aiming to be a complete provider of sustainable urban transport by 2025, the Oxfordshire-based firm already focuses on using natural-fibre composite materials, recycled plastics, and metals. Its Transport Futures Vision (TFV) outlines an ambition for an entire city ecosystem of inter-functional vehicles.
This includes its 2cubed cargo bike, which can reach 15.5mph (25kph), supports interchangeable batteries, and carries a payload up to 150kg. Configured online and excluding additional services, a fully-equipped model with a 120-mile (193km) battery range currently costs £15,505 (€18,600).
EAV envisions its 2cubed bikes being supported by the Lightweight Inner-City Solution, otherwise known as Lincs. Revealed in July last year, this mid-mile, flat-platform battery-electric vehicle (BEV) is designed to deliver ‘RoRo boxes’ to a specially adapted eCargo fleet. It is effectively a mobile depot vehicle, transferring containers to smaller vehicles at drop-off points.
EAV confirmed it would source drive components from in-wheel motor developer Saietta for the Lincs. ‘Saietta’s work on axial flux electric motors is way ahead of the curve and, with their in-wheel application, we are able to use maximum space on the platform deck so we can carry more goods more efficiently,’ said Gordon-Stewart in October last year.
With a range of up to 100 miles (160km), the lightweight Lincs looks to have a payload capacity of 1,000kg, challenging current light-commercial vehicles (LCVs). ‘Quite simply, this is the beginning of the end for the van,’ Barmby said.
