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A Whole New Category of Vehicle: The ONO Pedal Assisted Transporter

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ONO (A Whole New Category of Vehicle: The ONO Pedal Assisted Transporter)

Période du rapport: 2021-08-01 au 2022-07-31

It can no longer be contested that pollution and congestion caused by migration, traffic, insufficient road infrastructures, and the boom in e-commerce are urgent problems that continue to harm the health and welfare of people living in urban areas around the world. This is further exacerbated by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic which brings an exponential rise in home and business deliveries with even same-day delivery options. Inevitably, there came a hard push towards clean, alternative modes of transportation e.g. expansion of bike lanes in many cities during the pandemic, and the designation of city areas as car-free. In addition, with the exigency of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, the European Green Deal, the U.S. Green New Deal and other similar initiatives, clean, sustainable, innovative mobility solutions for our cities must be implemented by communities, businesses, and governments if we are to curb climate change and meet our CO2 reduction goals by 2030.

The overall objective of introducing the ONO Pedal Assisted Transporter (ONO PAT) is to transform urban logistics and mobility with an emission-free e-cargo bike that can used with existing and new transportation infrastructures for the clean, sustainable, and integrated movement of goods (and, eventually, also people) in our cities. The ONO PAT uses the automobile production framework to ensure standards of safety, durability, and reliability, and was developed with feedback from logistics operators and stakeholders that complained of polluting vehicles, congestion, lack of alternative routes and high driver turnover. Thus, the ONO PAT has the flexibility of a bicycle with the cargo capacity of a small van, does not require a driver’s license to operate, is ergonomically designed, and provides logistics operators the option to use bike lanes and alternative routes, have a minimal physical footprint, and make deliveries right to one’s doorstep. Efficiency, speed, and safety equates to lesser costs in the long term. With an interchangeable battery system, the ONO PAT can go up to 60 km with 2 batteries and has a payload of up to 200 kg with over 2m³ of volume capacity. It offers weather protection, has a cabin floor and a modular platform with an easy snap-and-go container-module system that opens it to a variety of sectors, including courier, express and package (CEP), food, micro-mobility, and utility/waste management services to name a few. For safety and anti-theft, the ONO PAT utilizes radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to access the vehicle and container-module, and sensors when reversing and driving. Please refer to the attached product brochure for the complete product specifications and visuals.

ONOMOTION GmbH goes beyond offering a game-changing product with its Vehicle-as-a-Service (VaaS) business model. With an affordable subscription free, customers benefit from regular maintenance services, competent customer support, theft and damage insurance, and a mobility guarantee within 2 business days. This strengthens the successful and sustainable integration and use of the ONO PATS.

The ONO PAT is not only a mobility solution that helps create healthier communities, but it also makes economic and environmental sense for logistics operators, small businesses and city governments that seek innovative, integrated mobility solutions that have positive impact in the long run.
In the first year of the project, ONOMOTION has achieved several key milestones, including setting up production of the ONO PAT in partnership with a Tier 1 partner in Germany, securing a warehouse location in Berlin for spare parts inventory and storage, beginning fleet deployment tests in several key German cities with customers from different sectors (such as CEP, micro-mobility, and food), building the service and maintenance ecosystem, growing the team and organizational capacity, forging crucial partnerships in service (Get Bike Service, a German-wide bike repair service) and operations (Apcoa city-hubs), and securing additional financial investments.

The ONO team is also actively participating in meetings and discussions around the possible regulation and standardization of e-cargo bikes in Europe to ensure compliance and product marketability. The CTO of ONO is the Vice Chair of the Cycling Industries Europe group.

Currently, there are 70 ONO vehicles and 81 container-modules on the streets with 33 clients from the CEP, micro-mobility, food, and other logistics operators, testing the ONO PAT primarily in Berlin, Leipzig, Munich, and Hamburg.
The ONO team continues to test, evaluate, and optimize the ONO PAT in preparation for commercialization. The design and product teams are exploring ideas based on ongoing customer demand and feedback, as well as their own research, such as the development of a solar roof and a fleet management application to make it easier to do vehicle bookings, permit remote access and geolocator tracking.

With logistics stakeholders, ONO explored the idea of micro-depots and entered into a partnership with Apcoa city hubs to test the idea in Berlin, and eventually in other cities in Germany too. This aligns with ONO’s vision to not only offer an innovative product, but to also transform urban logistics with integrated transport solutions that utilize micro-hubs, and existing transport infrastructures such as subway and tram lines. At the end of the project, ONO plans to have evaluated the test deployments to optimize the ONO PAT, built a robust service and maintenance ecosystem, analyzed and mitigated the product and market risks, have the necessary team, infrastructure, and funding to commercially launch the product.

The ONO PAT is emission-free and avoids about 130g of CO2 per kilometer travelled. Until the end of the project, ONO will increase the number of ONO PATs on the street to increase CO2 avoidance in several big cities in Germany, including Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and Leipzig. The team is also looking into creating more sustainable supply chains by selecting quality and reliable partners to have the least negative impact on the environment in the long run.
ONO Advantages
Vehicle Specifications
Container Module Specifications
ONO Factsheet
Future uses of the ONO