YOYOMultiDrops has appointed a new director, Brian Bachelor, to spearhead the company’s growth as its innovative quick-swap bodies head into production.
The interchangeable, lightweight body system for LCVs can enable a vehicle to demount its body onto the floor and pick up a new one in the space of a few minutes.
It can be fitted to any new 3.5-tonne chassis, both diesel and electric (new 4.1-tonne GVW available on EV chassis), giving an approximate payload of more than 1.5 tonnes on a typical drop-side body.
Two prototypes have been operated in on-road trials over the past 18 months, with the final design due to be built and rolled out in the New Year.
Bachelor (pictured), founder of fleet consultancy E-Van Guru, has worked in the commercial vehicle sector for more than 30 years across Volvo, Isuzu, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, VW Commercial Vehicles and most recently Nissan.
A firm advocate of industry’s transition to electric vehicles, he believes the YOYO concept can help mitigate the higher cost of e-chassis to fleet managers, which is often perceived as a barrier to moving from traditional diesel products.
Bachelor said: “The adoption of electric commercial vehicles has been too slow and our mission is to change this, but to balance the capital outlay operators will need to review their current operations and be willing to accept change.
“If you take a new electric LCV costing 55-65k, you have to be utilising that vehicle all the time to make the business case work. The drop and swap concept of YOYO, therefore, then starts to make it very attractive, when purchasing multiple bodies for each EV chassis.
“Body types can be changed, picked up or dropped off, allowing easy floor level loading and freeing the chassis for alternative deliveries, while still maintaining zero emissions.”
Yoyo is also suitable for specialised operations, such as mobile welfare pods and mobile surgeries, as well as the traditional public sector/recycling operations.
Mike Huntriss, CEO of YOYOMultiDrops, added: “Brian joins us at a time when we are making steps into sales from the innovation, proven technology and manufacture stages. We are really pleased to have him on board.”
YOYO is already in talks with a number of operators, OEMs and vehicle converters with its first two orders already in hand: one with a London-based operator that supplies to local authorities, the other with Maxus to be fitted to a new electric vehicle.
The first manufactured units will roll off the production line in January, built by Leyland-based MI Vehicle Integration.
YOYO plans to build around 90 units in its first year, ramping up to around 350 in the second year.
The YOYO system, which first made its debut at Freight in the City 2019, will be seen inaction on Sky TV’s ‘Green Technology in Transportation’ programme, being broadcast on: Sunday 20 and Sunday 27 December 10.00am on SKY digital channel 190.
