Famous rally car builder switches attention to delivery vans

Prodrive, UK-based engineering firm primarily known for its numerous award-winning rally car designs, apparently has new priorities now.

The company has just announced the Elm Evolv, an electric utility vehicle designed for last-mile deliveries. It’s not a one-off, either: the production is slated to begin in 2028.

The firstborn of the Elm (=Electric Last Mile) brand is fairly compact at 3,251 mm (127 inches) long and 1,447 mm (56.5 inches) wide. It still manages to fit items up to 1.6 meters (62.5 inches) long into the cargo area, as long as you put them closer to the driver’s cab. The rear end has an axle to accommodate, so it doesn’t accept items larger than 1.2 meters (46.8 inches) in any given dimension. On the upside, the van weighs just 850 kilos (1,874 pounds) and can carry up to 450 kg (992 lbs).

Prodrive doesn’t go into detail regarding the powertrain, but says that a 20-kWh battery pack gives the van around 160 km (100 miles) of range per charge. The top speed is capped at 80 km/h (50 mph), which the company considers reasonable for urban delivery services.

One of the more interesting design features of the microcar is its single-seat cabin, which resembles a glass cup both in shape and the proportion of glass used all around. Prodrive claims that the tiny truck complies with all the safety regulations listed under the L7e standard that it identifies with.

For starters, the company says it will make a small batch of Elm Evolv to test them in real-life cargo delivery scenarios. If successful, the production will be greenlit in 2028. By the beginning of the next decade, Prodrive hopes to deliver up to 10,000 such EVs annually, each priced from £25,000.