Swedish microcar maker Luvly wants to be the IKEA of tiny electric cars
Luvly, a Swedish microcar company, is gearing up to produce a tiny, ultraefficient electric car for urban living – and distribute it around the world using a flat-pack shipping method, much like another famous Swedish brand.
Luvly derives its name from LUV, or “Light Urban Vehicle,” which really sets the tone for what they’re going after – small cars designed for city use.
Luvly’s first vehicle, the Luvly O, has specs intended to work perfectly for an urban dweller. Which is to say, those specs are not any more than what you need (or more than what European quadricycle regulations limit them to), combined into a cute, affordable, and convenient package.
The whole vehicle weighs just 380kg (837 pounds), about a fifth as much as the standard 4,000-pound passenger car (the Tesla Model 3 weighs around this much), resulting in lower manufacturing emissions. And its light weight means that it’s tremendously more efficient, with energy consumption on the order of 60Wh/km (96Wh/mi), about two to four times better than “full-size” electric cars.
This low energy consumption means the Luvly needs a smaller battery to get around, and the standard battery is just 6.4kWh. But that’s not the best part – the battery is two separate units, each weighing 15kg (33 pounds), and they are removable.
So, sure, you can plug in the car to charge it. But what if you park on the street and don’t have access to a charging point? Well, you can just take the battery with you into your apartment and charge it there. This might be harder if you’re carrying other things or live in a walk-up apartment or have reduced strength or mobility, but perhaps another carrying solution could be designed for people who need that.
The small battery means fast charge speeds as well. On a standard European 220-230V outlet, each battery unit should take about an hour to charge. In the US, due to our slower 120V outlets, it’ll take about two hours. No special charger or high-amperage outlets are needed – just a regular outlet. Quick charging times and potential battery swapping capabilities also give the car the potential to be used for urban car-sharing schemes.
But despite (and perhaps because of) its small size, the car is still capable of the feats that matter most for intracity tasks. Its top speed of 90km/h (55mph) is perhaps a bit slow for interstates but suitable for quick highway jaunts within a city and for any surface road. Its trunk holds 267 liters, a bit over nine cubic feet, which won’t help you haul lumber but should be enough for groceries, bags, or maybe even a small Costco run. It would also be ideal for last-mile/intracity delivery.
Tiny cars are often thought of as being less safe, primarily due to oversized vehicles taking over the road, leading to an arms race of vehicle size. But smaller and slower cars are safer for occupants and for those outside the car. Luvly says they will use a sandwich-structure composite safety shell with additional energy-absorbing foam material to keep occupants safe. (Luvly calls it “slow formula racing tech.”)
And down to the bottom line: Luvly plans to sell the Luvly O for around €10,000, or $11,000. That’s cheaper than any car you’ll find and not even much more expensive than high-end cargo bikes. If it ends up qualifying for EV subsidies in the various regions it ends up being sold, that price could become even more absurdly low.
Most of these specs are subject to change, especially with varying homologation rules in different territories. And Luvly does see opportunities in several markets, both around Europe and around the globe.
The IKEA of tiny electric cars
Luvly says its main innovation is in its production and assembly process, which it intends to license and allow for different cars to be built with its same processes. A sporty model, a small cargo van, or a three-wheeler are all potential configurations.
The IKEA comparison is not just about the shared country of origin but rather about Luvly’s planned production and shipping methods. Rather than assembling cars in one central factory and shipping them around the world fully assembled, Luvly has pioneered a process that allows for flat-pack shipping of vehicle parts.
Unlike IKEA, these won’t be assembled by the end user, but flat-pack shipping will allow a single shipping container to hold the parts required for 20 total cars, rather than needing a pure car carrying ship or loading one to four fully-assembled standard-sized cars in a container.
So parts can be produced in a central factory, and these parts are then assembled in micro factories covering individual sales regions. One 2000-square-meter micro factory could service a territory the size of Sweden.
Each micro factory then has a smaller footprint, deployment timeline, and capital expenditures to set up. Licensees of Luvly’s process could set these micro factories up much more easily than if they had to build the entire process themselves. And at end of life, these parts can be recycled as well.
While Luvly has some stiff competition in Europe from established brands, like Citroen and Renault, and smaller companies, like Microlino, it believes that its flat-pack and sandwich composite methods give it a leg up. But it also believes there is plenty of room for this market to grow and that drivers can be convinced to go smaller.
Why smaller is better
Luvly CEO Håkan Lutz, despite being 193cm (6’4) himself, is adamant that cars are too big and need to be smaller. (He says that he and his brother, who is even larger than him, fit in the car together just fine.) He notes that Sweden has the largest cars in Europe. Despite that, Swedes are an environmentally-conscious lot: They live in a spread-out country with few significantly sized cities; they love to bring the whole family out to the Sommarstuga (summer house) for vacation (and tow a 1000kg trailer while doing so – these are ubiquitous in Scandinavia); and many live in small quaint suburbs.
But this gets down to the current predicament with cities, especially in Europe, but really all around the world. Cars are getting bigger, and city centers aren’t. These bigger cars create more pollution, are more noisy, kill more pedestrians, cause more congestion, and take up more parking space. And this is happening when we need to move more people into cities and make them denser, not less dense, in order to make society more efficient in the face of climate change.
Lutz would like to see this trend reversed. He sees the arms race of larger cars as a symptom of humans seeing each other as competitors to distance and protect themselves from. And this attitude will not help us in the fight against climate change or the fight for better cities.
A reversal of the large car trend would lead to myriad societal benefits and could be paired with making cities more human-centric rather than car-centric. With car-centric cities, we surrender so much of our human space to vehicles that only get used for minutes a day. A smaller car is still a car, and it still takes up space and needs roads, but smaller cars fit better into the lives of city-dwellers than the huge land yachts which US and EU automakers are trending toward.
But he acknowledges that the Luvly O is better for intracity travel rather than for living outside a city and driving in. However, for some drivers who live in a nearby suburb/exurb – say, Lund to Malmö, two cities just 20km away – the Luvly could work and would certainly be easier to find parking for. And despite being a low population density country, Sweden still has an urbanization rate of 88% – higher than the US at 83%. So there are plenty of people in each country who could benefit from an urban-focused vehicle.
Lutz thinks that young city dwellers, who are increasingly tired of their cities being overrun by SUVs, are the perfect audience for Luvly. He wants to target cities with high levels of pollution and congestion and with significant numbers of urban commuters. These will largely start in Europe, though Lutz thinks there are young people in every city in the world who could be interested in a vehicle like this.
Yes, even in the US, where the stereotype goes that small cars won’t sell. And here I am, with a 2,800-pound car in the driveway, still wishing it were a bit smaller – so maybe he’s right.
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Owner-operators are a huge part of the heavy truck market, and they’ve been among the most hesitant groups to transition from diesel to electric semi trucks. That may be changing, however, as Saldivar’s Trucking becomes first independent owner-operator in the US to deploy a Volvo VNR Electric Class 8 truck.
The higher up-front cost of electric semi trucks has been a huge obstacle for smaller fleets. That’s there are incentives from governments, utilities, and even non-profits to help overcome that initial obstacle. And the smart dealers are the ones who are putting in the hours to learn about those incentives, educate their customers, and ultimately sell more vehicles.
TEC Equipment is a smart dealer, and they worked closely with South Coast Air Quality Management District to secure the CARB funding and ensure Saldivar’s was able to ssecure $410,000 in funding from CARB’s On-Road Heavy-Duty Voucher Incentive Program (HVIP), which provides funding to replace older, heavy-duty trucks with zero-emission vehicles. The program is directed exclusively to small fleets with 10 vehicles or less that operate in California and aims to bridge the gap between the regulatory push for clean transportation and the financial realities faced by small business owners.
“TEC Equipment has been instrumental in supporting owner-operators like Saldivar’s Trucking through the transition to battery-electric vehicles,” explains Peter Voorhoeve, president of Volvo Trucks North America. “Their dedication to providing comprehensive support and securing necessary funding demonstrates how crucial dealer partners are in turning the vision of owning a battery-electric vehicle into a reality for fleets of all sizes.”
Saldivar’s Volvo VNR Electric features a six-battery configuration, with 565 kWh of storage capacity and a 250 kW charging capability. The zero-tailpipe emission truck can charge to 80% in 90 minutes to provide a range of up to 275 miles.
Those specs mean the Volvo electric semi is more than capable of meeting Saldivar’s operational needs, which include night shifts at California ports covering 175-200 miles per night, five nights a week. And, as he adds his VNR Electric miles to Volvo’s ever-growing tally, other owner-operators will see that it works for them, too.
“While large fleets often make headlines for their ambitious investments in battery-electric vehicles, nearly half of the 3.5 million professional truck drivers in the U.S. are owner-operators running their businesses with just one truck,” adds Voorhoeve. “These small operations face unique challenges, from the initial capital investment to securing adequate charging infrastructure … this collaboration is a perfect example of the important role to be played by truck dealers and why stakeholders need to work together to succeed in this new era of sustainable transportation.” We need solutions that work for different fleets of all sizes in the marketplace,” added Voorhoeve.”
Electrek’s Take
Electrifying America’s commercial trucking fleet can’t happen soon enough – for the health of the people who live and work near these vehicles, the health of the planet they drive on, and (thanks to their substantially lower operating costs) the health of the businesses that deploy them. TEC is doing a great job advancing the cause, and acting as true expert partners for their customers.
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SOURCE | IMAGES: Volvo Trucks, via ACT News.
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Mercedes released a look at the powertrain technology of its upcoming electric CLA, and it includes tons of neat EV tech and some interesting options for battery technology and what looks to be the most flexible charging system we’ve seen yet.
We’ve already learned a fair amount about the CLA after first seeing the concept last year, and Mercedes released a few new specifics today regarding its powertrain.
In keeping with previous information we knew, the CLA is targeting extremely high efficiency of 12kWh/100km, which translates to just 193Wh/mi or 5.2mi/kWh. That’s more efficient than anything else on the road today – with Lucid’s Air Pure reaching 200Wh/mi, or 5mi/kWh. And just less than what Tesla is claiming the Cybercab will be capable of, at 5.5kWh/mi.
This is thanks to Mercedes’ new compact EDU 2.0 electric motor, which is part of its new Mercedes Modular Architecture (MMA) which will underpin its upcoming electric vehicles. The drive motor will be 200kW on the rear axle, though all-wheel drive models will be available with an additional 80kW unit on the front axle. A two-speed transmission will ensure efficiency at high speeds and low.
For more efficiency in cold weather, the CLA will use an air-to-air heat pump which is able to capture heat from the motor, battery, and ambient air to heat the cabin. While batteries and motors don’t make nearly as much waste heat as inefficient ICE engines, it’s still good to be able to channel heat to wherever you need it.
Mercedes says that the CLA will come equipped with a choice of two different batteries, each with different chemistries.
The larger 85kWh model will be capable of an unnecessarily-high 750km (466mi) of WLTP range – though WLTP numbers are always higher than EPA numbers, so expect something in the high-300s in EPA parlance. This battery will add silicon oxide to the anode for higher energy density, a technology that has been pioneered by Sila Nanotechnologies, a company which Mercedes is a lead investor in.
The smaller battery will be 58kWh, and will use lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry. LFP is a cheaper but lower energy density technology, with higher long-term durability and simpler sourcing of minerals (it uses no cobalt, whereas Mercedes says cobalt has been “reduced” in the larger batteries). However, LFP generally has slower fast charging and cold weather performance.
On charging: the “premium” battery will have an 800V configuration capable of up to 320kW charging speeds. Mercedes says this can add 300km (186mi) of range in 10 minutes, and also says that the car will have a broad charging curve, which means you’ll get high charge rates even if the battery isn’t close to empty. It didn’t specify if the smaller LFP battery will have the same charge rate.
This high charging rate allowed Mercedes to set a record traveling 3,717km (2,309mi) in 24 hours at the Nardo test track in Italy in a pre-production CLA. That’s an average travel rate of 96mph – including time spent charging.
We also learned something about Mercedes’ NACS adoption plans. While just about everyone has committed to transitioning cars to NACS, it has taken longer than expected (largely due to Tesla’s chaotic CEO firing the whole supercharger team for little reason), and few cars have native NACS inlets yet. Some brands can already charge at Superchargers with adapters, but Mercedes is still on Tesla’s “coming soon” page.
As a result of delays in onbaording automakers, some seem to have pulled back on their plans, pushing NACS ports to later model years. But Mercedes has a new and unique solution – it will just put both CCS and NACS ports on the CLA, right on top of each other.
Mercedes says “in the future, new entry-level models will be capable of bidirectional charging,” but isn’t clear whether this model will be capable of that.
Electrek’s Take
While this is short of a full release of specs, we’re excited by what we see here. Mercedes seems to confirm that they’re meeting the efficiency goals they set out, and we like that they’re offering a variety of options and taking advantage of some newer EV tech like 800V charging infrastructure.
The inclusion of both NACS and CCS is very interesting, again offering options to owners during the transition. That seems to be the big message from Mercedes here – we’re not going to just pick one tool, we’re going to use all of them.
But pricing and availability are obviously big questions, as is design.
The concept looks fantastic, but concepts always change on their way into production. The shape of the camouflaged test vehicle is very different – but looks to have some shrouding on the front and back to hide its shape, so we’ll have to wait until we see this thing unveiled for more.
And as for pricing – Mercedes says the CLA will be an “entry-level” car, but who knows what that means anymore these days. The base ICE CLA starts at around $44k currently, so lets see if they can hit that number.
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Daimler Truck North America has helped alcohol distributor Reyes Beverage Group deploy fully 29 zero-emission Freightliner eCascadia Class 8 electric semi trucks in its California delivery fleet.
Reyes Beverage Group (RGB) plans to deploy the first twenty Freightliner electric semi trucks at its Golden Brands – East Bay and Harbor Distributing – Huntington Beach warehouses, marking the first phase in the company’s transition to a fully zero emission truck fleet by 2039. An additional nine eCascadia Class 8 HDEVs are scheduled for delivery to RBG’s Gate City Beverage – San Bernardino warehouse before the end of 2024.
RBG’s decision to adopt the Freightliner eCascadia builds on its recent transition to renewable diesel and its ongoing idle-time reduction program. These electric vehicles (EVs) “go electric” will contribute significantly toward the company’s stated goal of reducing its carbon emissions 60 percent by 2030. These 2 trucks will save some 98,000 gallons of diesel fuel annually, and avoid putting nearly 700 metric tons of carbon dioxide and other harmful emissions into California’s air each year.
“We are excited to be among the first in our industry to adopt these electric vehicles,” explains Tom Reyes, President of RBG West. “This is a significant step toward our sustainability goals and ensuring compliance with state regulation as we transition our fleet to EV.”
Freightliner’s eCascadia electric semi trucks offer a number of battery and drive axle configurations with ranges between 155 and 230 miles, depending on the truck specification, to perfectly match customers’ needs without compromising on performance and load capacity. RBG’s Freightliner eCascadia tractors will rely on electric charging stations installed at each facility, allowing them to recharge to 80% capacity in as little as 90 minutes for RGB’s trucks, which feature a typical driving range of 220 miles as equipped.
Electrek’s Take
Food and beverage trucks operate everywhere – not just at the ports but in urban population centers, too. That means they’re pumping out harmful emissions right where a lot of people live and work, and that’s no bueno, making the electrification of these vehicles a no brainer for anyone who cares about the quality of life of the people who live and work near them.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Daimler Trucks.
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