Electric van manufacturer Flexis, which was established in 2024 as a joint venture between Renault, Volvo and logistics and shipping company CMACGM, is to bring its first models to market in 2026.
Built on a versatile skateboard platform, these will comprise a panel van with two wheelbases, a chassis cab capable of supporting a range of bodies, such as box van, tipper and fridge van, and the high-roofed Step-in van.
Whereas the panel van has a height of 1.9m to allow it to access underground city car parks, the Step-in van offers internal height clearance of 1.9m to enable drivers to walk upright inside the vehicle. It features internal access between the cabin and load space via a sliding door, sliding side doors and a rear shutter loading door rather than a tailgate or twin barn doors to save space while loading and unloading. An integrated rear step helps to ease access. The absence of a front overhang means the vehicle is 250mm shorter than an equivalent diesel van, according to Flexis, which improves visibility for the driver and enables a turning circle of 10.3m, the same as a Renault Clio supermini car.
Flexis has not yet announced payload or load volume capacities for the vans.
The models, which are designed to meet the needs of the burgeoning urban parcel delivery market, will be built at Renault’s Sandouville plant in France. Flexis anticipates ramping production up to 15,000 units within three years.
It says the vans will be offered with a choice of two batteries with respective ranges of 450km (280 miles) and 320km (199 miles). But rather than saying the longer range makes the van suitable for inter-city work, Flexis stresses it will reduce the need for urban operators to recharge during working hours. It also claims a 10% to 80% fast charge will be possible in 18 minutes.
Emphasising the company’s focus on city-based operations, Flexis CEO Philippe Divry said: “Our mission at Flexis is to support and accelerate the electrification of the urban logistics industry.”
Flexis says the vehicles incorporate SDV (Software Designed Vehicle) architecture, which supports fleet management connectivity to maximise uptime through features such as predictive maintenance. It claims SDV also enables over the air updates to the vans’ embedded software, as happens with smartphones. According to Divry, this makes the Flexis vehicle “a computer on wheels”.
Flexis claims that through boosting operational efficiency, offering charging infrastructure management and protecting residual values with regular software upgrades it can offer total cost of ownership savings of 20% compared to fleets using diesel vans.
The company will release prices for the models towards the end of 2025 but as well as outright purchase, it says it will also offer the vans on a pay-per-use basis.
It says customers will be able to source the vans directly from Flexis or through the Renault and Volvo retail networks, which, alongside mobile units, will also provide service, maintenance and repair (SMR) for the vehicles.
Flexis will launch the vehicles in the UK, France and Germany and has announced 10 ‘letters of intent’ with logistics providers in these markets. In the UK one of its partners will be electric vehicle parcel delivery company Hived.
