The Lego-Like Envo UPT Is an EV That Can Be a Golf Cart, ATV or Lawnmower
Slate Auto isn’t the one firm betting that clients wish to construct their very own EV from a elements equipment. Canadian micromobility firm Envo’s Utility Private Transporter is a modular electrical platform that may be reconfigured into almost 20 totally different automobiles — golf cart, go-kart, snowkart, ATV, side-by-side, cargo quadricycle, last-mile supply rig, even a stretcher-equipped emergency car.
Envo has spun the platform off into its personal sub-brand, Modular-EV, with a devoted storefront and on-line configurator separate from Envo’s most important e-bike and gokart enterprise.
That is an electrical cart, not an electrical automotive. The UPT tops out properly under freeway speeds and isn’t meant to exchange your day by day driver. It’s meant to exchange the 5 or 6 single-purpose machines presently cluttering your storage, farm shed or fleet depot. Envo’s messaging leans closely on the smartphone analogy: the concept that UPT needs to be the one factor you want in your storage, the best way your telephone changed your digicam, calculator and GPS.
The corporate already builds e-bikes, go-karts, golf carts and cargo quadricycles, so a modular electrical micromobility platform is a logical subsequent step. The UPT rides on an aluminum T-slot Base Block chassis relatively than a standard welded body, which makes the reconfiguration trick potential. The platform’s size and width could be resized, and suspension, motors and physique modules bolt on wherever the applying requires them — no welding required.
Energy comes from independently managed hub motors at every wheel, which Envo says provides it exact, quad-motor torque management relatively than a single drive unit sending energy by axles and differentials. (This additionally permits the EV to drag off zero-radius tank turns.) Consumers can spec a brief or lengthy wheelbase, 2WD or 4WD, and both a single 2.83kWh battery or twin 5.66kWh packs for as much as an estimated 62 to 125 miles (200 km) of vary, relying on configuration and payload. Which will sound brief, however we’re speaking about an electrical golf cart with a 40 mph (60 kph) prime velocity; it’s not precisely constructed for highway journeys. Conserving with the modular theme, the batteries themselves are swappable and user-serviceable, which is a pleasant nod to repairability.
From there, it’s a matter of choosing tires (CargoBike or off-road), steering (wheel or handlebars, car-style pedals or a bike-crank generator), seating and physique parts like bumpers and cargo packing containers. The entire thing could be disassembled with hand instruments and rebuilt from a elements catalog, and folds down sufficiently small to toss in a pickup mattress.
Modular-EV is promoting the platform each as a naked rolling chassis and as a lineup of preset builds, every with its personal mannequin quantity. There’s the UP20 base platform, the UT20 utility car and UT21 golf cart, the AT20 by AT23 all-terrain and mobility-scooter variants and extra. My private faves are the GC20 buggy go-kart and the LV20 microcar.
There’s additionally a run of ET-series work automobiles aimed toward airports, hospitals, movie crews, occasion entrepreneurs and municipal fleets, all bought on the identical chassis with totally different physique kits. Envo has additionally introduced a partnership with autonomous-driving firm Faction to convey AI-driven, self-driving capabilities to the UPT for last-mile supply. These industrial fleets are prone to be the largest marketplace for the modular UPTs, not the typical driveway.
That stated, I feel the DIY nature of the builds is what makes this attention-grabbing past the world of fleet automobiles. Somebody operating an electrical side-by-side round a big property, or a golf cart in a car-free group, may maintain a bin of swap elements readily available and switch the identical chassis right into a mower or plow when the season requires it, as a substitute of shopping for and storing a separate machine for each job.
The Modular-EV UPT begins round $9,000 for the naked UP20 platform, with most completed presets priced between $10,000 and $12,000. That’s not low cost for one thing you’ll be able to’t tackle the freeway, however the pitch isn’t “purchase a cart,” it’s “purchase a platform.” You may’t mow your garden with a Honda Civic. With this, you could possibly then flip round and use the identical chassis to haul cargo, plow snow after which toss the entire equipment behind a truck and take it tenting.
