The secret town that could be saved by THIS electric vehicle
There’s so many people on the street walking around in SAR that it isn’t Pleasant either for the Walkers or the drivers a driving through Town’s a nightmare and be parkings a nightmare so today Electro heads I am traveling approximately 250 M just to prove a point which is one of the pettiest
Things I’ve ever done on video it’s literally dead to me now Jack I hate you and I never want to see you again but it is to prove that electric is the way forward in more ways than one around 15 years ago I visited a remote Coastal idilic English Seaside town for the
First time and I fell in love with the place but this town it was clear to me had a problem and it’s a problem that is increasingly prevalent in towns and cities across the world the small town with its narrow cobbled streets was plagued by large delivery Vans we’ve all
Seen these huge Vans speeding around our neighborhoods whilst the driver furiously tries to keep up with their daily delivery targets or faces being penalized by their parent company Vans were designed as inter city sprinters helping us to Lug cargo from A to B I.E the transit van and often they’re used
By workmen to load up with tools but once at the workplace they’d be parked up all day not hairing around town at break neet speeds for 8 hours a day a recent studies suggest delivery vans in cities are usually less than half full I.E they’re a giant waste of space a bit
Like the Tottenham Hotspur trophy cabinet so today I’m going to go back to that coastal town from my youth and prove that we don’t need them by using a new form of electric cargo vehicle this actually harks back to a business idea I had when I first visited the town and in
This video I’m hopefully going to get the opportunity to pitch that idea to people who can actually make it happen I’m out but to get this mystery vehicle to the town I actually need an even bigger vehicle which is the one I’m driving right now which is a van should
You think about it is it’s actually pretty awkward given this is sort of an anti- van video you fing hypocrite but I tried to find the coolest van that I could and I got the VW ID Buzz cargo which is absolutely brilliant so let’s take a quick look at what I’m driving
For 250 MI the ID Buzz cargo is Volkswagen’s van version of their Flagship electric vehicle the VW ID Buzz which is of course based on the legendary VW Camper band The standout feature of this band for me is the range with a claimed range of around 250 Mi you might assume that
The real range is around 200 Mi but I’ve been finding the claimed range is very accurate and you can certainly expect to get 250 Mi out of this van if you drive it conservatively and that includes Motorway driving in urban settings you might even get more than 250 Mi with the
Regen breaking helping you to top things up in my 8m trip through London at the start of this journey my remaining range actually went up by 3 miles I’m making range I’m God I’ve driven quite a few of the ID range of cars and I think this
One is the best handling and the smoothest out of all of them the exterior styling is eye-catching turning the heads of lots of people who see it but the downside if there is one is the interior styling which is all a bit plasticky it’s a bit disappointing given
The price of around 50 to 60,000 but I have to say the more I drive this the more I’m falling in love with it it’s just one of those cars that Sparks Joy welcome to St IES an historic fishing town in cornall England which is now popular with Surfers holiday makers
And enjoyers of Cornish pasties I.E me yeah me St I was developed long before the Advent of the car meaning streets are narrow and it’s densely packed in so that villagers in ye olden times could buy a newspaper eat a pasty and drink 10 pints of beer all within a short
Distance of each other nice now the town is incredibly popular with tourists and all these densely patched local businesses bring a lot of footfall to the narrow streets you can’t pedestrianized the town because then the local businesses wouldn’t be able to get their supplies and that is where
Electric cargo bikes come in St Ives is at the bottom of a very Steep Hill it’s a hill that can be mitigated by electric cargo bikes so my idea is to have a Depot at the top of the town where there is an industrial space all of the vans
That want to do deliveries into the town will deliver to that Depot and then people on cargo bikes will Ferry the parcels down to the Village help to get rid of vans from the town this is an actual idea that I’ve come up with that I’m literally going to pitch to The
Mayor and the counselors so it could be a real business but I need to get local business owners on side they might just tell me to off which would be absolutely fair to be honest so I’m going to go en canvas some opinion in the uh pouring
Rain today got two days to do it to get as many business owners on the side as possible so let’s go and meet some locals wait wait wait slow down before we do that let’s take a look at what I’m riding today so fol this is it the
Magnificent Feast that I’m going to be riding around Cornwall for the next 2 days it is the EST Starly EC cargo longtail brand new cargo bike from estal it’s got some really impressive features huge battery which gives you 120 km of range really impressive even with up to
90 kg of load on the rear rack load on the rear rack sounds sounds a bit dodgy but I’ll carry on uh beautiful mid- drive perang motor and carbon belt drive it’s so smooth and so easy to ride so let’s take take a closer look at it the
Estalia EC cargo offers an impressive 75 M range from a 17 amp 700w battery and 80 Newton met of torque from his 250 W mid Drive beang motor later on in this video I get the torque figure wrong whilst riding and toring because I can’t
Do two things at once so just to be clear it definitely has 180 Newton M of torque and ignore what I say later because I’m an idiot the bike can take an overall load including ryer of 210 kg that equates us up to 90 kg on the rear
Rack and 140 kilos of Rider weight there’s also a front basket that you can put a small amount of additional Cargo in the enviolo CVT with a carbon Gates belt drive inss a noise-free low maintenance ride it’s cargo frame sty 20-in wheels and schwarber super moto tires handle various terrains
Comfortably with an ipx6 water resistance rating is ready for pretty much any weather it can accommodate Riders from 5 ft to right up to 6’5 it’s worth noting that a family version of this is available you can either fit a bench or two sh seats to the back
Meaning you can do the store run on this bike and I’ve got a dog he hello hello what’s your name what’s your name ping it down I’ve forgotten my helmet but I’m going down to meet Judy who runs a chocolate shop and apparently loves my idea of doing deliveries on a bike so
Let’s see she loves it as much when she realizes that the chocolate could get soaking wet for Shake then you’ll be quicker than me mate Go pass okay it’s doing all right I know that my face is very close to the camera but managing to get up there could I do
This every day 100% so Judy thank you very much for having us here today uh if there was a Depot and the sort of industrial center at the top of the town yeah where there were a team of like local Surfer kids who are earning a bit of extra money who
Could take the deliveries from BS and F them down to businesses like yours would that be something that you would use to help get Vans out of the town I think it’d be brilliant I think it’d be so good cuz delivery I really feel for the delivery people when they come in
Because they especially in the summer they’re having their Vans around the tiny little lanes and everything and they’re all stressing out because of the buses because of this that and the other whereas if there were people that would just come down and uh do the last leg of
The journey I think they would love it and um it’d be a lot easier for for everyone really and plus I’d also use it I think cuz the um with posting a lot of parcels especially towards Christmas um if the post office do a pickup the next
Day but sometimes if I’m running late it’d be really nice if people could just pick it up and get stuff out so if they could come and pick it up on the same day that also would be really good okay so I I could send a teenager down on a
Bike to come and pick up all the things that you need delivered out of the town as well yeah okay so it could work both ways is at this point in the interview you might notice that Judy has a lot of ideas that are a lot better than mine
I’d love someone to come down from the town and just like kind of coming in to see if I want something to eat because sometimes when it’s really busy uh whether it’s I’m packing boxes in the winter doing the postal orders or if it’s a summer and it’s just kind of busy
With um with everybody here on holiday it’d be great for someone just to come in I could give them an order give them some money for doing it and they can go and get my lunch okay so when I speak to Johnny the mayor later do you think he’d
Be interested in that part of the service as well the the food delivery yeah um possibly because he’s probably really busy and doesn’t get a chance to go out either thinking so it turns out that like all great ideas somebody else has already thought of it I’m off to
Meet John ke who runs his own wine delivery service via electric cargo bike but first I’m off to perform my first delivery service for Judy using the EC cargo we’re on the road again folks and it is wet just doing a bit of testing see if this can handle the hills
And say eyes and handle the weather as well really should be able to it doesn’t have the most torque this thing uh but it does it’s got 35 Newton met of torque ignore what I say later because I’m an idiot 250 wat of power obviously to keep
It legal in the UK seems to be getting up the hills fairly easily certainly going down the easily right now the brakes are working so really just trying to get a sense for whether this could be a feasible option it’s not the quickest in the world up hill right now doing
About 17 km an hour my uh ebike at home I usually ride so when a E28 or ad a20 we would probably fly up here a lot quicker than that but it is really heavy compared to those so it’s got a long hill climb this already not Li to my
Legs are starting to burn a little bit I’m not going to name names here but some of my colleagues don’t film in the rain cold and Alish but I think it’s really refreshing and I like uh getting really ill so thought I’d give it a go
So look the point of this never ending Hill section is basically to show that even though it’s not easy work cycling for 10 minutes on a 15% incline it’s really not that hard C is certainly something I could do several times a day if I had
To so scotet wines is mostly a wine wholesaler we sell we sell wine to other restaurants and uh and to pubs little bit to to the private customer but mostly mostly to restaurants are mostly within sort of five miles of this warehouse and you’re doing the deliveries on e-c cargo bikes and you
Have an electric van as well that’s right so we do do quite a lot of volume when in the summer we it can it can be sort of you know several thousand pounds of wine a day and that means it won’t all fit on the cargo bike that eily un
Unfortunately so we do have an electric van for the bulk and then the cargo bike is the sort of the top UPS the vans on the lease um I’m paying £200 a month including vat so it’s ridiculously cheap actually to have the van and then there
The maintenance is a few tires there not it’s been a service in 3 years it’s it’s been incredibly cheap to run and you’re never going to the fuel to the fuel station you never giveing money money to Shell I there’s people that really we probably should not want to give to
Money to you strike me as someone who you know is passionate about sustainability already it’s what what could be more important at the moment I’m often often going to a protest in London I actually think the general public has really moved a long way on
This and would like to see an awful lot more done the mayor in St Ives he’s really Keen to push sustainable transport forward what’s holding us all back is the government so little update from me so many comments from people walking around St Ives about the cargo
Bike um all very positive comments and then you know somebody like John ke who runs a business and does deliveries on a bike like this he is saying that he actually prefers riding the cargo bike around cor and he’s traveling quite long distances so businesses want it people
Want it it seems like the authorities want it that’s really promising place to be it seems like Solutions like this are starting to win people over I thought I’d get some weird looks around town whilst riding this bike that they aren’t all that common yet but most people
Reacted positively to it and lots of people stopped to ask questions about the bike anyone who’s followed my career I.E my mom make any friends will know that I’m a bit of a car fanatic but as much as I love cars I have to admit that driving in cities and towns absolutely
Sucks getting out of the metal cage has been a hugely positive experience for me in London and I can attest it’s also been a hugely positive experience in Cornwall we need to make mic Mobility Cargo Solutions like this the norm every time I see that a parent or a small
Business has bought any e cargo bike from electro heads it makes my day because it’s one less car on the road every morning and that’s what we’re here to try and chieve uh hi um I’m Johnny Wells and I’m a counselor for the carbis
Bay in theant area of St I and I’m also the mayor of St IES okay so a lot of titles yeah which one of those has more kind of power in uh the mayor really to start with I think yeah so I’ve had this idea for a while about trying to get
Fewer vans in in and around the town in St IES uh because it’s there’s a lot of pedestrian traffic I would think the best way of doing it is by having a delivery Depot for the local businesses at the top of the hill and then using EC
Cargo bikes to bring the deliveries down to the local businesses just kind of off the bat is that something you think could work and would make sense yeah um I ironically it is something that we’ve been uh toying with as well you know the idea of that kind of delivery mechanism
As a council it’s difficult for us to actually you know make it happen in terms of buying all the kit and making it happen because you’re then into employing people and yeah there’s that whole thing which makes it you know as as a council it’s difficult to to
Justify that to your to your you know to the public and and you know the the plans for the town are to reduce the amount of traffic in town okay um by reducing people’s need to drive into town so providing other Parking Solutions and other Delivery Solutions
Like out of town delivery where you can get the last mile shipped into town on a bike which is ideal and do you think a big part of it is trying to change as attitudes towards those Solutions as well is yeah I mean that’s the hardest
Point is is getting people to make the change and understand the need for the change and and actually you know while it’s the easy options are well we’ve just got a van that’s in the car park you know what we’ll just use that to send down there you know it’ll never
Change until we can reduce a the ability or B the need for people to drive into town because they won’t change unless unless the alternative is better and cheaper basically that’s that’s where it comes to that’s where we’re at really is figuring out ways of making getting in
And out of St I’s a more pleasant experience Johnny’s told me that this is the hill that when you raise the idea of cycling in St Ives people always say it’s not possible cuz this hill is too steep so we’ll see if that’s true let trying not to crash cuz I’m adjusting
The camera okay is pretty steep I’m not sure if the inst 360 on the back would be be showing how steep this is but yeah it’s a steep one we can do this I’m not out of the saddle yet but I might have to get out of it easy peasy
That now going to be honest this is this is really Hardy think we’re at the top okay it’s like a wrong turn it’s not the end of the Hill Christ alone and I can see what the car park is was at the top of another massive Hill so I’ve been tricked
Going up two Hills this is the route that the drivers would have to do if they were delivering into the town center it’s getting dark supposed to go surfing at the end of the day definitely running out of Surfing time this is hard actually this has been
10 minutes of hill now Johnny was not lying okay a little bit left to go nearly there quite a lot of running and cycling and my quads are burning this thing weighs 30 kilos okay it’s leveling out I think it’s downhill from here okay as I saying I think if you did
That multiple times a day you were working for the Electra heads St Ives delivery Depot you’ll be incredibly fit Afterwards okay so what better time and place to round off this video than when I’m waiting for this car to get up to 100% charge uh for a few minutes it’s here at the grid serve at Coral services so I think it’s really important the thing I want people to take away from
This video that if you’re passionate about the same things that we are at electr heads and you feel like an electrad then we’ve got a bit of a duty to try to persuade people who are on the fence slightly about these issues to come over to our side there will always
Be people who are just against what we’re trying to achieve but that number I think gets smaller and smaller over time which is really encouraging met so many really cool people down in cornal who 10 years ago probably wouldn’t have considered themselves Eco Warriors or sustainability Advocates but more and
More I think normal everyday people are starting to come around to this way of thinking people will have valid concerns about things like uh let’s say uh convenience and reliability and availability cost with electric cars you get things like charging anxiety and range anxiety but in this awesome van
Over the past few days I’ve had none of that so I got it down to about uh 40 or 50% charge um before I got to this little service station and I’m back up to % in I think about 45 minutes so just got a bite to eat for lunch started
Recording this and then I’m going to be on my way it’s lived up to the range that it says it was going to deliver which was about 240 250 Mi so I’ve had no anxiety throughout this trip uh when it comes to that riding the cargo bike
Around in all weathers I had fun even when I was like genuinely getting drenched for about 3 or 4 hours one day so you know those things aren’t ideal but is it better than a Public Health crisis caused from pollution I would say yes getting a little bit wet is probably
Better than breathing in noxious fumes and chemicals so look if you’ve enjoyed this please subscribe to the channel and please comment on this video with your thoughts if there is another place like St Ives you think I should be visiting uh that could do with a bit of uh ebike
Love and persuasion then let me know uh I want to do more Journeys like this so thanks for watching and I’ll see you again next time thanks Electro heads
In the town of St Ives, tight and narrow roads pose a challenge for traditional delivery vans. Which is why I’ve come up with a genius plan to ease traffic and make the town more eco-friendly…
📦 Join me as I use the Estarli eCargo Electric Bike to deliver packages to local shop owners, cycle up the steepest of hills, and pitch my brilliant idea to the mayor!
🚴♂️ Interested in the Estarli eCargo Longtail? ⬇️
• https://electroheads.com/products/estarli-ecargo-longtail-cargo-bike
0:00 Coming up
0:10 Here’s the problem
2:00 Cool ride no.1
3:06 Welcome to the town
3:43 My idea…
4:28 Cool ride no.2
6:11 Lets begin
6:47 Speaking with the locals
8:40 My first delivery
10:03 How bikes can help
12:31 A chat with the mayor
14:40 Testing the TOUGHEST hill
16:20 So, is it possible?
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