Domino’s to use this flashy new delivery electric bike with a built-in pizza oven
Your next Domino’s pizza delivery could be a lot cooler… and hotter! The company is rolling out an impressive-looking new delivery e-bike with a built-in pizza oven. The bike is known as the dxb and it could turn pizza delivery on its head.
Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Ltd made the announcement today, claiming to “boldly go where no pizza company has gone before.”
The dxb delivery bike is built on a somewhat conventional-looking electric bike frame, but quickly throws that convention to the curb when you see the bike’s rear. That’s where the company has installed a fan-forced pizza oven that has been “expertly engineered to provide the hottest, smoothest and safest ride for precious pizza cargo.”
The bike features 20″ street tires, a downtube-integrated battery, and a wide rear wheel stand – presumably to enable stable parking with that top-heavy pizza oven on the back.
It’s not the first time we’ve seen Domino’s embrace electric bikes for pizza deliveries, but it’s definitely the coolest take on the concept yet.
And I know what you’re probably thinking – this dxb bike looks nice, but you’d rather not receive a half-folded tomato focaccia with cheese all over the box lid after the bike hits a pothole. To solve that issue and ensure that pizzas are delivered in the same condition they leave the store, the bike has what Domino’s calls “space-age suspension”.
As the company explains, “Stabilised by space-age suspension that cuts g-forces by an incredible 67 percent, the chance of turbulence for your pizza is zero – arriving at your door exactly as it was lovingly hand-made in store.”
Hmm, perhaps Domino’s should run a side hustle building mountain bikes.
Oh, and another cool feature that isn’t explicitly mentioned but is pretty darn apparent from the images we received is that the rims appear to have a blue luminescent coating with a set of frame-mounted lights to charge them up. If the massive, glowing pizza box weren’t visible enough, it would be hard to miss those rims. Fum features like those almost help me ignore the rim brakes, almost.
If you’re excited to get your pizza delivered by dxb e-bike in the US, I’ve got some bad news for you. This e-bike is only being rolled out in the Domino’s Pizza Enterprises (DPE) markets, the territory covered by the Australia-based franchisee of US company Domino’s Pizza’s.
To be fair, DPE is huge. They have over 2,800 stores and cover the countries of Australia,
New Zealand, Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Japan, Germany, Luxembourg, Taiwan, Malaysia,
Singapore, and Cambodia. But the United States hasn’t yet modernized its greater transportation ecosystem, meaning Americans will still likely have their 2-pound pizza delivered in a 4,000-pound car.
But hey, at least the US has seven parking spots per person. Yay?
Electrek’s Take
The dxb is by far the coolest purpose-built delivery electric bike in the pizza game right now.
I love what they’ve made, but it also doesn’t mean you need to go over the top like this to do bike-based deliveries. Any ol’ utility e-bike would make a great option for food delivery, even if it doesn’t have a built-in forced-air pizza oven.
NYC seems to be the only American city that has truly figured out food delivery by bike, and now the rest of the country needs to get it in gear. We’ve already seen great bike and motorcycle delivery examples across Asia, Australia, Europe, Africa, and South America. You know what that means. Congratulations, North America! You’re on the same level as Antarctica in adopting more efficient food delivery.
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GreenPower Motor Company says it’s received three orders for 11 of its BEAST electric Type D school buses for western state school districts in Arizona, California, and Oregon.
GreenPower hasn’t made the sort of headline-grabbing promises or big-money commitments that companies like Nikola and Lion Electric have, but while those companies are floundering GPM seems to be plugging away, taking orders where it can and actually delivering buses to schools. Late last year, the company scored 11 more orders for its flagship BEAST electric school bus.
As far as these latest orders go, the breakdown is:
- seven to Los Banos Unified School District in Los Banos, California
- two for the Hood River County School District in Hood River, Oregon
- two for the Casa Grande Elementary School District in Casa Grande, Arizona
Those two BEAST electric school buses for Arizona will join another 90-passenger BEAST that was delivered to Phoenix Elementary School District #1, which operates 15 schools in the center of Phoenix, late last year.
“As school districts continue to make the change from NOx emitting diesel school buses to a cleaner, healthier means of transporting students, school district transportation departments are pursuing the gold standard of the industry – the GreenPower all-electric, purpose-built (BEAST) school buses,” said Paul Start, GreenPower’s Vice President of Sales, School Bus Group. “(The) GreenPower school bus order pipeline and production schedule are both at record levels with sales projections for (2025) set to eclipse the 2024 calendar year.”
GreenPower moved into an 80,000-square-foot production facility in South Charleston, West Virigina in August 2022, and delivered its first buses to that state the following year.
Electrek’s Take
Since the first horseless carriage companies started operating 100 years ago (give or take), at least 1,900 different companies have been formed in the US, producing over 3,000 brands of American automobiles. By the mid 1980s, that had distilled down to “the big 3.”
All of which is to say: don’t let the recent round of bankruptcies fool you – startups in the car and truck industry is business as usual, but some of these companies will stick around. If you’re wondering which ones, look to the ones that are making units, not promises.
SOURCE | IMAGES: GreenPower Motors.
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While some recent high-profile bankruptcies have cast doubt on the EV startup space recently, medium-duty electric truck maker Harbinger got a shot of credibility this week with a massive $100 million Series B funding round co-led by Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund.
It’s been a rough couple of weeks for fledgling EV brands like Lion Electric and Canoo, but box van builder Harbinger is bucking the trend, fueling its latest funding round with an order book of 4,690 vehicles that’s valued at nearly $500 million. Some of the company’s more notable customers including Bimbo Bakeries (which owns brands like Sara Lee, Thomas’, and Entenmann’s) and THOR Industries (Airstream, Jayco, Thor), which is also one of the investors in the Series B.
Other prominent investors include Tiger Global, the Coca-Cola System Sustainability Fund, and ArcTern Ventures.
As for what makes Harbinger such an attractive investment prospect, Dipender Saluja, Managing Partner of Capricorn Investment Group’s Technology Impact Fund explains that, “Harbinger has demonstrated a remarkable ability to reach significant milestones far quicker than other EV companies … the market has been impressed by their ability to develop large portions of the vehicle in-house to drive down unit costs, while remaining capital efficient.”
The company plans to use the funds to ramp up to higher-volume production capacity and deliver on existing orders, as well as build-out of the company’s sales, customer support, and service operations.
“Harbinger is entering a rapid growth phase where we are focused on scaling production of our customer-ready platform,” said John Harris, co-founder and CEO. “These funds catalyze significant revenue generation. We’ve developed a vehicle for a segment that is ripe for electrification, and there is a strong product/market fit that will help fuel our upward trajectory through 2025 and beyond.”
The company has raised $200 million since its inception in 2021.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Harbinger.
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There is no state more associated with cars and car culture than Michigan – and the state that’s home to the Motor City has just taken a huge step into the future with the deployment of its first-ever all electric police vehicle.
The 2024 Ford Mustang Mach-E patrol vehicle is assigned to the Michigan State Police State Security Operations Section, and will be to be used by armed, uniformed members of the MSP specializing in general law enforcement and security services at state-owned facilities in the Lansing, MI area.
“This is an exciting opportunity for us to research, in real time, how a battery electric vehicle performs on patrol,” says Col. James F. Grady II, director of the MSP. “Our state properties security officers patrol a substantially smaller number of miles per day than our troopers and motor carrier officers, within city limits and at lower speeds, coupled with the availability of charging infrastructure in downtown Lansing, making this the ideal environment to test the capabilities of a police-package battery electric vehicle.”
The MSP’s Precision Driving Unit is nationally renowned for its annual Police Vehicle Evaluation, which our own Scooter Doll participated in last year, driving the then-new Chevy Blazer EV Police Pursuit Vehicles in a game of “cops and robbers.”
In those tests, the EVs have impressed – but the MSP has been hesitant to commit to a BEV until now. “We began testing battery electric vehicles in 2022, but up until now hybrids were the only alternative fuel vehicle in our fleet,” said Lt. Nicholas Darlington, commander of the Precision Driving Unit. “Adding this battery electric vehicle to our patrol fleet will allow us to study the vehicle’s performance long-term to determine if there is a potential for cost savings and broader applicability within our fleet.”
Michigan joins other states like Wisconsin and California in deploying electric patrol cars and saving big money on fuel and maintenance, with many more out there and many more to come.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Michigan State Police.
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