Renault has revealed a clever compact electric van concept reviving the classic Estafette badge from the 1950s.
Co-developed with Volvo
The new Estafette concept will be shared with Volvo - Renault has an agreement to share van and truck technology with Volvo—and it’s been designed around emissions-free ‘last kilometre’ urban deliveries.
It’s a compact vehicle, which Renault describes as having the “Kangoo L2’s length, Clio’s agility and Trafic L1H2’s load capacity.” That would suggest a maximum payload of just over 1,000kg for the Estafette.
New FlexEVan platform
The Estafette concept rides on the ‘FlexEVan’ electric commercial vehicle platform, which has been developed by Renault’s semi-separate electric vehicles division, Ampere, with help from Flexis, a company jointly set up by Renault and Volvo to develop the next generation of electric commercial vehicles. It uses that Ampere and Renault call “SDV (Software-Defined Vehicle) architecture” which “plays an essential role in increasing performance and cost-efficiency in new-generation vehicles.” Among the ease-of-use ideas baked into the Estafette concept are real-time software updates and ‘predictive maintenance’ whereby the van’s systems can tell when a problem is likely to occur and flag it up as a service issue before it becomes a serious problem.
Running cost reductions
The FlexEVan platform is also designed to produce a final vehicle that is about 30 per cent more cost-efficient than current designs. The Estafette has been designed based on feedback from Renault’s commercial vehicle customers and users and is said to be geared around their needs.
“We are very excited about helping to bring to life the vision that Renault Group and its partners Volvo Group and CMA CGM Group have come up with to revolutionise urban logistics, to make operations more sustainable, safer, city-friendlier, driver-friendlier and neighbour-friendlier. Estafette Concept is the first example of what electric utility vehicles will look like tomorrow: purpose-engineered to drive in cities, compact, connected and built for fully sustainable delivery services” said Philippe Divry, CEO, Flexis SAS.