Volkswagen has partnered with the German Post Office and the University of Art at Braunschweig to create the eT! electric delivery van.
The Volkswagen eT! electric delivery van research vehicle was unveiled at the Design Center in Potsdam.
The eT! uses electric hub motors to maximize important interior volume both under the hood and in the load bay.
More excitingly, the eT! can be operated semi-automatically in some situations. A courier walking from house to house can instruct the van to follow, and it will drive automatically behind the person. The “come to me” feature will make the eT! drive toward its human operator.
On the passenger’s side – the side that faces the sidewalk and therefore the working area of the delivery person – there is therefore an electrically opening sliding door that opens to 2 different stages; this enables extremely quick entry into the vehicle as well as quick access to the mail parcels.
This makes unnecessary walking movements around the vehicle a thing of the past.
Variants of this lightweight transport vehicle could be implemented for all conceivable business uses. The research vehicle will now be integrated in a driving test study and further analyzed.[wzslider height=”400″ lightbox=”true”]
