Clean-tech startup CityFreighter is planning to unveil a prototype of a line of highly customized electric delivery trucks for the “last mile” early next year.
The company said it currently is raising funds through a Title III Regulation Crowdfunding campaign on Startengine and plans to start production of its new modular CF1 commercial vehicles in the third quarter of 2019.
“Our modular approach significantly reduces tooling costs, development time and supports our fast go-to-market plans via a quickly scalable production volume,” said Michael Schoening, president of CityFreighter. “It will allow us to rapidly develop different designs for different customers’ value-chain requirements.”
CityFreighter pointed to changing last-mile logistics and the explosion of eCommerce as the impetus driving demand for its development of “sustainable, compact, pollution-free commercial vehicles,” saying that by 2030, 70 percent of all people will live in bigger cities and there is an increasing shortage of drivers.
“Furthermore, upcoming regulatory changes for inner-city traffic will lead to a rapid increase in the sales of commercial, electric vehicles for urban deliveries,” the company said. “All that takes place in a market estimated globally at $729 billion by 2028, of which up to 35 percent (comes) from urban light-duty truck sales.”
CityFreighter said it “will disrupt the traditional business model of truck manufacturers by developing customized vehicle concepts, which seamlessly integrate into the physical- and IT-infrastructures and evolving business requirements of fleet operators.
“We view the delivery truck of the future as part of a fully, digitally connected value-chain spanning from distribution center to recipient.”