Load star

Engineered by Hydro, Polestar and Corum, and powered by Cake, Konstantin Grcic’s electric three-wheeler is ready to deliver

- NICK COMPTON

At the beginning of last year, we teamed the German designer Konstantin Grcic with the Norwegian aluminium giant Hydro. Grcic promptly went away and drew up plans for a utilitarian, electric-powered aluminium trailer and trike – a calmer, kinder solution for ‘last mile’ deliveries and more. As the year progressed (if progressed is the right word), his proposition seemed to gather momentum.

The pandemic was making less impactful delivery an ever more pressing problem and opportunity. With much of the population working at home, and all but essential retail closed, doorbells were constantly chiming to announce fresh deliveries. At the same time, city governments across the world were determined that streets suddenly almost devoid of traffic would remain free of fossil-fuelled vehicles once the pandemic was over. Side roads were closed to four-wheeled traffic and new cycle lanes were laid out. As an idea, Grcic’s trailer trike had legs. It was clear though that putting the design in motion would require experts in electric mobility. We identified Polestar, the high-end sustainable electric vehicle brand spun off from Volvo, and Cake, the Swedish electric motorcycle maker, as perfect partners. Calls were made to Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath and Cake founder Stefan Ytterborn, and they were quick to sign on; the Zooming and Teaming could begin.

A simple observation from Ytterborn quickly prompted a radical redesign. ‘Stefan just asked why we needed pedals,’ says Grcic. ‘The Cake bike battery would be more than enough to pull the loads we were imagining. And that was a key moment. Suddenly I was free of the bicycle typology and could try and create an entirely new typology.’