Prodrive Has Created a Tiny, Delightful Electric Van Concept

You may recognize the name Prodrive from their performance and racing business. The company had a championship-winning run as the orchestrators of Subaru's World Rally team; they built Ferrari 550 Le Mans racers back in the day;and now, they're selling exceptional $600,000 Impreza 22b tribute cars.

Their next business, however, looks very different — and this tiny electric van concept is the starting point.

This is the EVOLV demonstrator, a concept for a last-mile electric delivery vehicle built by an alliance between Prodrive and the British design firm Astheimer. It's the first concept from their new joint venture ELM Mobility, which hopes to put a delivery vehicle like the EVOLV into production by 2028.

60% of the EVOLV demonstrator's total volume is cargo area, making up a massive 141 cubic feet. That space is spread out over two different cargo areas: a main hold accessible by a side barn door, and a secondary space that can be reached by more traditional rear doors. The EVOLV carries all that in a 128-inch-by-57-inch footprint — nine inches narrower and more than a foot shorter than a Fiat 500e. It also weighs less than 1874 lb even with batteries installed and under 1322 lb without them; that makes it light enough to qualify as a quadricycle in England, rather than a car.

ELM Mobility hopes to get a production version of the compact EVOLV on city streets, where its tiny footprint and short turning radius would make it one of the least-disruptive delivery vehicles ever conceived. The brand plans to build these not-a-vans by 2028, and sell them for the equivalent of $33,000. Fingers crossed they can make it happen.

Via Autocar.

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