Berlin According to the annual report of Deutsche Post, the production of the “Streetscooter” last year resulted in a loss of exactly 318 million euros for the Bonn-based Dax group. Even before that, the iconic electric delivery van was in the red, which is why CEO Frank Appel now wants to sell it to the Luxembourg company Odin, a re-establishment of ex-BMW board member Stefan Krause.
Jörg Mosolf, the CEO of the traditional car transport company Mosolf in Kirchheim / Teck, had also been offered the deficit Post subsidiary – but he waved it off. After initial explorations, he reported that the risk of ruining the entire group of companies with the takeover was too great.
Accordingly, Mosolf’s latest appearance at this year’s congress of the Federal Logistics Association comes as a surprise. In mid-October, the 65-year-old placed a white electric delivery van in the foyer of the Intercontinental Hotel in Berlin, which is in many ways similar to the street scooter: 700 kg payload, 260 km range, 85 km / h top speed.
There is only one thing that should make a huge difference to the electric vehicle from Deutsche Post, as the company boss promises: “We want to break even this year.” Production started just 13 months ago.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
It is largely uncharted territory for Mosolf. In 1955, Horst Mosolf, who died six years ago, founded a forwarding company that specialized in automobile transport in the middle of the economic boom. The father of the current CEO won the manufacturer Borgward as his first major customer, and Volkswagen followed shortly afterwards. Today, Mosolf, with 3100 employees, around 1000 car transporters and 350 double-decker wagons, is one of the leading car haulage companies in the republic – and is number two in complete car transport behind the semi-public Bremer Lagerhausgesellschaft (BLG).
Sales record 2019
In 2019, the forwarding company reported a record turnover of 430 million euros – with a simultaneous net profit of 14.6 million euros. In the 2020 corona year, however, revenues fell by 30 million euros, and the 2021 financial year is also unlikely to be satisfactory in view of the chip crisis that is rampant among car manufacturers.
All the more reason, company owner Jörg Mosolf is pushing for the expansion of his so far smallest company division, which he leads under the name “special construction”. She usually converts simple limousines and station wagons into police and customs vehicles, installs additional equipment for disaster control or installs environmentally friendly electric motors in the brown delivery vans of the UPS parcel distributor.
While looking for new fields of activity, the freight forwarder from the Swabian Alb came across the Californian company Tropos, which holds patents on an electric delivery van that is only 1.40 meters wide in Silicon Valley south of San José – and issues these to interested manufacturers under license.
“It was the perfect niche for us,” enthuses Mosolf. “The vehicle is smaller than a Sprinter or Crafter, for example, and is therefore not in competition with Mercedes or VW.” That much is clear, the southern German car transporter does not want to scare off its powerful customers. After all, 600 vehicles are to be delivered this year, at least twice as many in the next.
The mini electric truck was designed for inner-city traffic.
The mini electric truck is designed for inner-city traffic, and experts like to call it “urban logistics”. The Tropos delivery vans should preferably start from transshipment points on the outskirts of the city, from where they serve the so-called “last mile” to private households or retail stores. “The Tropos is about logistics and processes,” lectures the trained freight forwarding agent, who did his doctorate in St. Gallen after completing his MBA.
Accordingly, it offers its customers a multitude of possible uses – from the three-part sliding door to the covered wagon body to the tilting device. Such a focus on customers, believes the company boss has found a success factor, was neglected with the Streetscooter.
In fact, there is a colorful list of customers for the Tropos. The Dutch supermarket chain Albert Heijn ordered the vehicles to deliver food with them CO2-free. The Frankfurt facility management group Wisag also ordered the small e-vans, as did the French city logistics company Swoopin, who travels for customers such as Hellofresh, Zalando and Carrefour.
Basic model from 24,000 euros
“The Tropos is also used on campsites, amusement parks and zoos,” reports Head of Marketing Gordon Krug. There are orders from Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Benelux and Denmark. European sales are now far greater than those in America.
One possible reason: Although the vehicle was first launched in the USA four years ago, it was originally designed in France for the European market. The inventor had it developed by the Austrian-Canadian auto supplier Magna, but then slipped into bankruptcy. The US company Tropos Technologies then acquired the patents.
With prices starting at 24,000 euros, the vehicle built under license in this country is significantly cheaper than a street scooter with a comparable payload, for which interested parties had to put just over 40,000 euros on the table. However, users have to charge it via a normal socket, which takes between eight and ten hours. In the future, a solar panel mounted on the van roof will provide additional electricity.
50 employees are now busy with the construction, most of them at the Herne plant, which the Swabians built on an industrial wasteland in 2019. “There were numerous qualified specialists there after Opel shut down the plant in Bochum,” reports Jörg Mosolf.
The Tropos fitters had to find between 30 and 40 suppliers for production, but in the end they deliver the vehicle, unlike what is usual among truck manufacturers, complete with body and IT.
There is even praise for it from the former industry competitor. Detthold Aden, for a long time CEO of BLG and thus the largest German car transporter, noted on LinkedIn after attending the Berlin logistics congress: “The Tropos is simply well received.”
More: German car transporters fear for their existence