The goal is to study whether shifting “last-mile” deliveries from larger vans to smaller electric cargo vehicles can reduce congestion, noise, and emissions while improving delivery efficiency in dense urban neighborhoods.
Methinks Amazon is more interested in cost cutting than the above.
The cargo ‘e-bikes’ use electric bicycle drivetrains and include pedals with a pedal-by-wire system common in three- and four-wheeled cargo e-bikes that translates the user’s pedal power into forward motion via an electric motor.
Amazon says the concept has already proven itself in cities around the world, especially in dense urban cores where delivery stops are clustered close together. Rather than sending large vans into crowded neighborhoods, packages are brought to smaller local microhubs where cargo bikes handle the final leg of delivery.
And while the idea may still feel novel in much of the US, cargo bike logistics have become increasingly common in Europe.
