The new 'Duty' model that Tauranga-based electric motocycle maker Ubco created for Australia Post – which has bought 175 on an inital trial.
The new 'Duty' model that Tauranga-based electric motocycle maker Ubco created for Australia Post – which has bought 175 on an inital trial.
Tauranga-based electric motorcycle maker Ubco has revealed a breakthrough deal.
Australia Post has bought 175 of the start-up’s bikes for a pilot programme that could lead to a wider rollout for its 10,000 posties.
Ubco won’t put a dollar value on the deal, but the bikes are a customised faster, rear-wheel version of Ubco’s original 2x2, which sells for $8999 in its special edition, dubbed the “Duty”.
“This is a pivotal moment for Australia Post,” Australia Post chief executive and managing director Paul Graham said at a Sydney launch event for the deal.
“This new fleet allows us to electrify a broader spectrum of routes, reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and further advancing our sustainability goals. We are proud to integrate cutting-edge solutions that benefit our team members, our customers and the environment.”
Some of the 175 Ubco bikes Australia Post has purchased.
NZ Post: Smaller trial
Meanwhile, NZ Post, currently operating around 400 electric four-wheelers from Norway’s Paxster and 172 petrol motorcycles, is also running a trial with the Tauranga contender, albeit on a smaller scale at this point.
“Over the last 12 months, NZ Post has been working with both Ubco and AusPost, who have developed a bike solution to replace the AusPost motorcycle fleet with the electric version,” an NZ Post spokeswoman said.
One of the Ubco e-motorbikes NZ Post is trialling.
“Ubco and AusPost have provided us with the results of the work done with their bike development,” the spokeswoman added.
Next month, NZ Post will begin trialling four Ubco electric motorbikes in Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington and Christchurch.
“The testing and pilot of the Ubco bikes will run for three months – following which we will consider the results and our approach beyond this,” the spokeswoman said.
She had nothing to add on the future of the Paxsters. NZ Post recently said individual Paxsters would not be replaced if they irreparably broke down. The Paxsters cost NZ Post around $24,000 each.
“Ongoing discussions are being held with NZ Post with a view to fleet expansion subject to the success of the pilot,” Ubco chief executive Oliver Hutaff told the Herald.
“While we cannot specifically comment on the Paxster phase-out, we welcome any discussion NZ Post would like to have on this to see where our bike could be used to replace some of the postal deliveries the Paxsters serviced.”
Rural roots
Ubco first made a splash when it hit Fieldays in 2015 with its first model, an all-electric utility bike that appealed to farmers because its almost silent-running was animal friendly, and the engine with almost no moving parts meant no running costs. It helped, too, that the removable battery could also be used to recharge power tools.
The lack of noise also drew conservation and tourism clients. But with a top speed of 35km/h, it was too slow for roads. Faster, road-capable urban models have since been released – but durability and practicality from its rural roots remain one of the Kiwi company’s key points of difference in a crowded market. More recently, it has added cloud-based fleet management software.
The bikes are designed in Mount Maunganui and contract-manufactured in China and Taiwan.
New focus on fleets
“With the announcement about our partnership with Australia Post, and the adoption of our bikes by the National Park Service in the US, you can see the company evolving to its new focus on fleet applications requiring a robust, high-durability vehicle,” Hutaff said.
6000 bikes sold
“Given that we are in the midst of a company transition [the Herald understands a major capital raise is in the works] we are not providing financial metrics publicly. In respect of bikes, we now have over 6000 bikes in markets across the globe with new market opportunities presenting themselves every day.
“We are excited to see the work over the last 18 months start to provide demonstrable success in the marketplace.”
Pizza deal was entre for AusPost
Ubco began trialling a new monthly subscription model for fleets in 2021, with Domino’s as its pilot customer.
“Domino’s continues to support Ubco on a store-by-store basis,” Hutaff said.
“We have approximately 60 bikes in the Domino’s fleet which has been a great proving ground for delivery in New Zealand. We have used this experience as a benchmark when developing Duty along with the specific requirements supplied by Australia Post.”
At this stage, Ubco has not expanded into Domino’s Australia, which has a significant pre-existing fleet of e-bikes.
French cops, US Nation Park Service
“In terms of other fleet adoptions, Ubco 2x2 motorbikes are already used by France’s Gendarmerie Nationale [the French law enforcement agency has purchased 14 bikes and is piloting another eight] with land-management and conservation agencies adopting the bikes in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the US, including the New Zealand Department of Conservation and The United States National Park Service,” Hutaff said.
“In addition to delivery and land management, we also have several tourism fleet adoptions in Spain, Portugal, Australia, New Zealand and the US.”
Where to from here?
“Australia Post is the start of large-scale, heavy-duty fleet deployments. The closest comparable is the Rivian Electric Delivery Van built for Amazon which provided the platform for a wider Rivian B2B [business-to-business] fleet buinsess,” Ubco director Chintaka Ranatunga told the Herald.
Ranatunga is also the founding partner of Auckland venture capital firm Global From Day 1 (GD1) – the second-largest shareholder in Ubco with its 21% stake its built across several rounds of investments. Ubco has had a rolling maul of capital raising across VC rounds and various crowdfunded equity drives and a string of CEOs.
The largest investor is Jubilee Glory Investments, a firm affiliated with Ubco’s Taiwanese production partner TPK, with a 24% holding. Jubilee led invested US$10m (at the time, about about $14m) in 2021.
TPK itself is the third-largest investor with a 17% parcel.
The rich-list Holdsworth family (the majority owners of Datacom) and Sir Stephan Tindall’s K1W1 both have 7% stakes.
Another rich-lister, Peter Mafsen, holds a 4% stake.
“In the very capital-intensive and globally competitive electric vehicle business, Ubco has benefitted from large-scale equity, debt and working capital, and access to global supply chain,” Ranatunga said.
“Ubco owes special thanks to Kiwibank – who over the past five years have played a critical role helping Ubco nd other capital-intensive Kiwi hardware and deep-tech startups with global potential build through the economically disastrous Covid period.
“It is not possible to build a large-scale hardware/deep tech business without large-scale debt and working capital as the failures of many European and UK players like Cake and VanMoof have shown,” Ranatunga said.
Dutch ebike maker VanMoof declared bankruptcy last year. Swedish electric motorcycle maker Cake filed for bankruptcy in February. The firm raised US$60m in a 2019 Series B round but could not raise new capital this year following bad publicity over a product recall over a steering column fault.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.
