Minimal merges small van and electric bike in Pedal 4 delivery vehicle

Photo of the Pedal 4 electric delivery vehicle by Minimal

British start-up Minimal has designed an electric cargo bike with the carrying capacity of a small van in the Pedal 4, now operating in London with delivery companies Royal Mail and Evri.

Shortlisted in the consumer product design category of the 2026 Dezeen Awards, Pedal 4 was built to take up less room on the roads and evade traffic even on London’s crowded and complex streets.

The four-wheeled, pedal-assist cargo vehicle has a footprint not much larger than a bike – three metres by one metre – and is able to go down pedestrianised roads and use cycle infrastructure, according to Minimal.

Photo of two Pedal 4 electric cargo vehicles, looking like small, skinny vans with an open front cabin, and Royal Mail branding in bright red on the sides of the cargo box, parked in an undercover carpark

Photographs

At the same time, it boasts 2.5 cubic metres of cargo space and in London trials made 36 per cent more deliveries per hour than vans.

“Electric vans solve the emissions problem, but not the access problem,” said Minimal CEO and co-founder Patrick Bion. “They still sit in the same traffic, fight for the same kerb space and need a driver with a licence.”

“They weren’t built for the job they’re doing,” he added. “We designed Pedal 4 around that job: a full round of deliveries, through streets a van can’t get down, ridden by anyone who can ride a bike.”

Photo of the Pedal 4 electric delivery bike by minimal seen front-on as a narrow, covered vehicle, driving down a cobbled street

Minimal considers the Pedal 4 to be not just an electrified van or scaled-up bicycle, but a vehicle engineered specifically for delivery with an aesthetic drawn directly from its functional architecture.

It has a four-wheeled base for stability and independent double-wishbone suspension at the front and a rubber torsion axle suspension system at the rear to help keep it level around corners, even when its cargo box is full.

The team removed the traditional bike chain, minimised fasteners and reduced part counts with the aim of making the vehicle both rugged enough for its task and easily serviceable.

Photo of the Pedal 4 vehicle from the side, driving down a street

They wanted the vehicle’s aesthetic to come directly from its functional architecture – an exposed zinc-coated carbon steel frame with satin black metal covers.

“Pedal 4 has to do a van’s job every day for years, so it can’t be fragile, fussy or expensive,” said Minimal product design engineer Sean Heany. “Our biggest wins came from deleting parts, not adding features.”

“By rethinking the geometry, we cut part count and fastenings, which made the vehicle tougher, quicker to fix and cheaper to build in our London microfactory.”

The Pedal 4 includes two slots for swappable batteries, which lift out to charge outside of the vehicle and together give a range of 60 kilometres.

In the UK, the vehicle is classed as a heavy-duty electrically power-assisted cycle (EPAC) and can be driven without a licence, which Minimal says widens the pool of people who can do the job.

However, Minimal believes that the future of logistics lies in autonomous and worker-driven vehicles working side by side. To that end, each Pedal 4 is equipped with the company’s FleetOS fleet management software, which tracks its route and vehicle performance.

Close-up photo of the Pedal 4 electric vehicle showing the exposed metal frame with screw-joined elements and a bike seat and pedals within the cabin

Minimal says that the data collected will be used to make the next round of design changes and inform the company’s autonomous vehicle programme. Recently, it has launched Bot, a UK- and EU-focused delivery robot.

“Pedal 4 is where our autonomy work starts,” said Heaney. “Every vehicle is connected, and more than 100,000 kilometres of real delivery data has taught us what city logistics actually demands.”

“The same principles carry over: fewer parts, lower cost, built for uptime. They are what make autonomy work economically, not just technically.”

Close-up photo of a person's hands handling the battery on the base of the Pedal 4 vehicle

Pedal 4 has been engineered for, tested on and now launched on London’s streets through partners Royal Mail and Evri, but Heaney says the same vehicles and software are built to scale across Europe. The company plans to launch in the US in 2027.

“London is one of the hardest places in the world to deliver, which makes it the best place to start,” said Heaney. “If Pedal 4 works on London’s streets, it can work anywhere.”

“Cities can’t keep moving goods the way they did last century,” he continued. “We need new ways of moving things that make our cities, our environment and our everyday lives better.”

Other recent new electric vehicle typologies include the Amble One – a doorless electric buggy in the vein of a golf cart – and a three-wheeler called Trinity designed for urban travel.