Honda dips its toes in cargo delivery micromobility

Walk around a big city like New York or Amsterdam long enough and you’re bound to notice something: tiny four-wheeled cargo carriers zipping down bike lanes.

These battery-assisted vehicles, often called e-quads, are distinct from cargo e-bikes, which tend to be geared toward households. E-quads are larger and sport enclosed cargo holds, making them a darling of delivery companies, including Amazon and UPS, allowing them to sidestep congestion that bogs down regular box trucks.

Now, Honda is offering its own take on vehicle type, the Fastport eQuad. 

The eQuad comes in two sizes built on at the same basic platform, small and large. Both are smaller than the smallest Mini Cooper, but can carry between 320 to 650 pounds. They have pedals, and their top speed is limited to 12 mph (20 kph), both requirements to keep them bike lane legal.

To keep the eQuad trucking, Honda is using its Mobile Power Pack batteries. The 22-pound batteries can be swapped for a fresh pack much like Gogoro or Zeno. By grabbing the build-in handle, drivers (or riders?) can drop them into a caddy located just behind and below cockpit.

Inside the cockpit, drivers have the usual bike seat, pedals, and windscreen. A display helps the driver stay on route. Based on the number of mentions in the press release, Honda really wants this to be considered a software-defined vehicle, which it says will over “continues value and improvements over the vehicles lifetime,” though it doesn’t specify what those are.

U.S.-bound eQuads will be built at the Honda Performance Manufacturing Center in Ohio. For the craftspeople who work there, the trundling eQuad will be a very different assignment. Previously, they were best known for hand assembling the second-generation Acura NSX, a 500-plus horsepower supercar capable of 191 mph.