Hasta La Ideas

Most cargo bike designs are clearly evolutions of the standard bicycle design. However, a German mobility startup called Dynamic Drives started from scratch with their Intelectra, a cargo e-bike.

The first big difference is how you sit on it. While the standard cargo bike rider position is this…

…the Intelectra offers this:

The company reckons this recumbent seating position offers “faster entry and exit.” (I’ll leave that for experienced cyclists to debate.) With their chosen seating position established, it was a matter of adding a platform that could support their target payload: Standardized Euro boxes with a total weight capacity of 450kg (nearly 1,000 lbs) including the rider. This yielded the following form:

The bike is a pedelec; pedaling generates juice, helping to charge the battery that powers the motors on each rear wheel. The company says this chain-free design reduces maintenance needs. The battery can be additionally charged by plugging it in, and it takes about 1.5 hours to top it off. The bike’s range is 93km (58 miles), and the top speed is capped at 25 km/h (15.5 mph).

It can be fitted out with options ranging from a passenger seat to lids to a Conestoga-wagon-like canopy.

Admittedly it’s not the most dynamic-looking design, but it is form-follows-function, and I appreciate that the designers started from a blank page rather than incumbency.

If all goes right, these will hit the streets later this year.