Panasonic of eCUV the Compact electric transport for business

2020: The first samples of compact electric vehicles for business

On February 12, 2020 TAdviser knew that two models of compact electric vehicles, completely ready to production, for business (eCUV1) were provided by Panasonic corporation and the Californian startup of Tropos Motors. The compact fire truck and the car refrigerator are intended for the small companies rendering different services on "the last mile", commercial vehicle fleets, municipal services (including, emergency), etc. Models differ in high efficiency and environmental friendliness and also can be connected to the platform of cloud services OneConnectSM.

The compact connected fire truck has functionality of the full-size analog, but costs at the same time 10 times less (the cost of the standard fire truck can reach 500,000 dollars). The model is equipped with the protected tablet Toughbook FZ-G1 for navigation, receiving and trackings information about emergencies and communication with the operator. Rather miniature sizes will allow to use effectively this electric vehicle even in very limited spaces where large cars will not be able to pass.

The compact connected car refrigerator is equipped with eight cameras Hussmann (the developer company is included into the Panasonic group), which thanks to special vacuum heat insulation hold cold 13 times more effective than normal polyurethane containers for freezing. Boxes are suitable for processing and recycling and also do not require additional cooling that increases environmental friendliness of the solution and cuts a consumption of accumulators.

Panasonic’s OneConnectSM is the global cloud platform allowing to trace and to timely inform drivers and owners of vehicle fleet on need of maintenance of transport and also providing analytics about use of cars. According to forecasts of Statista, to 2023 in the world there will be about 342 million connected vehicles. The data received from OneConnectSM can be used for creation of the algorithms increasing efficiency of automobile accumulators and key components.

Cooperation of Panasonic and Tropos Motors began in May, 2019. The Japanese company uses in the project own practices in the field of power and IoT (the "smart" connected transport). Tropos Motors uses the Tropos Motors ABLE2 platform - for the electric vehicles station wagons combining the high loading capacity and possibilities of towage with environmental friendliness.

The compact electric transport gains ground in business as in certain cases it is suitable for the solution of specific objectives much better, than diesel analogs. At the same time small electric cars win at the price, low operating expenses and maintenance, providing the accelerated return of investments.

2019: The first project of Panasonic in the field of eCUV in the USA

For commercial use (^[1]) the North American division of Panasonic corporation and a startup from Silicon Valley Tropos Motors specializing in completely electric transport, including, low-speed electric vehicles will be engaged in development of the hi-tech connected compact electric vehicles (^[2]) and small trucks. The parties are calculated that their solutions will be demanded in customer services (from emergency to utility), agriculture, a courier delivery and other directions of business which are directly connected with movement of small groups of people and loads.

Panasonic uses in the project own developments in the field of power and IoT (the "smart" connected transport). Tropos Motors, the leader in the market of eCUV, is going to develop a line of small electrotrucks on ^[3] - the station wagons combining the high loading capacity and possibilities of towage with low impact on the environment.

The compact low-speed electric transport is not limited to golf penalties and microcars for a long time. It is more eco-friendly and often is suitable for the solution of specific business challenges better, than its big diesel analogs. Owners of commercial vehicle fleets can select the most different eCUV, reducing (in every sense) the size of the transport, but saving at the same time its functionality and loading capacity. At the same time small electric cars win at the price, low operating expenses and maintenance, providing the accelerated return of investments.

Pluggability to the Internet and the IoT systems – one more important point for any vehicle fleet allowing to reduce total cost of ownership and at the same time to increase security and environmental friendliness. The systems of online monitoring allow to keep track of location of each electric vehicle, service life of the battery and key components, to manage routes, energy consumption and other parameters. Project participants will be able to work also in this direction.

Electric vehicles

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