Hasta La Ideas

This Evolv vehicle is by Astheimer Design, a UK-based industrial design firm. The idea was to design a last-mile electric delivery vehicle from the ground up. There’s a real purity to the minimalist design: It’s a box maximized for storage, with a driver’s compartment attached.

To save space, the driver’s seat has been placed in the center; in this position, the footwell does not interfere with the suspension and steering system. This allows for a shorter wheelbase and a crazy-tight turning radius of 7.8m. It also gives the driver fantastic visibility. And “by positioning the driver behind the front axle, the vehicle can also be engineered to meet N1 (small van) passive safety standards including front, side, and roof crash [figures].”

The box is sized to carry a 1.6m-tall Euro Pallet, and has an overall volume capacity of four cubic meters. The vehicle falls in Europe’s L7e category, meaning it’s technically a quadricycle, not a delivery truck. The minimalist construction means it comes in “around half the weight of a compact van with equivalent load volume.”

“The vehicle is the most efficient in its class, in terms of cost and energy per unit volume of goods per mile.”

The design may look like a concept, but it’s going into production. Astheimer Design has partnered with Prodrive, a motorsports technology company, to form a joint venture called Elm Mobility. Elm aims to get the Evolv on the market by 2028.