Tuesday, January 04, 2022
Lossy production
Post repels Streetscooter
In retrospect, Deutsche Post was early to enter the electric vehicle business. The street scooter production remains expensive and does not bear fruit. The company is now selling the vehicle rights and know-how to an international consortium.
Deutsche Post draws a line under the loss-making production of the Streetscooter electric van. The Bonn group is selling the rights and the know-how to produce its electric vans to the international consortium Odin Automotive, as the Post announced. The transaction does not come as a surprise – it was registered with the Federal Cartel Office last October. The Post is also joining Odin as a minority owner, she said. According to Odin, Bonn has a ten percent stake. At the head of the holding is the former BMW and Deutsche Bank board member Stefan Krause.
Swiss Post took over Streetscooter GmbH, which was founded as a startup in the vicinity of RWTH Aachen University, in 2014, began series production of the vans and expanded the company. Around 17,000 of the vans for the Bonners are currently curving through the streets, and the fleet is to be expanded to 21,500 vehicles. However, the Bonn-based logistics group did not want to become a car manufacturer, so the decision was made to separate from the subsidiary. The maintenance of the vehicles is to remain within the group, however, the remaining 3500 electric vans are to be delivered by Odin. The group has secured a corresponding minimum order from the post office, she said.
The takeover of Streetscooter will be followed by further transactions, announced Odin. “This acquisition gives us a huge head start over the rest of the industry in our mission to deliver a proven, holistic electrification solution for fleets,” said Krause. Behind Odin are, among others, Sparta Capital Management in Great Britain, a large Chinese component manufacturer and a partner for contract manufacturing in North America. In view of the steadily growing number of parcels and the plans to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gas CO2, electric vans are seen as a growth market.