Ukraine’s Coolon Motors Wants To Offer An Electric LCV Starting At $16k

Like cars and SUVs, light commercial vehicles are gradually moving into the electric era, something which allows new players to step into the game. Coolon Motors from Ukraine has presented their first fully electric LCV which wants to combine an affordable price with a low cost of ownership.

The model is based on a modular platform with a low floor. Initially, it will be offered in three different lengths and in three different bodystyles. From the renderings and the early prototypes, we can see a boxy cab-over design with large glass surfaces and flat sides making cargo space and usability the priority.

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The LCV will be available in front- and all-wheel-drive guise with electric motors producing up to 161 hp (120 kW / 163 PS) and 250 Nm (184 lb-ft) of torque allowing a top speed of up to 90 km/h (56 mph). The lithium-ion phosphate battery modules will consist of many 4 kWh blocks providing up to 300 km (186 miles) of range.

Light commercial vehicles are all about logistics and managing the downtime so Coolon will equip their fleet with control units that will monitor the status of every system allowing remote diagnosis of possible issues. The vehicles will also be capable of receiving over-the-air updates and ready to integrate autonomous driving systems.

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This is an early prototype of the Coolon LCV that has already started testing. Naturally, it looks quite different from the renderings but we hope the final production version will be more presentable.

The target starting price for Coolon’s LCV is $16,000, which is a pretty optimistic goal for a startup. Their website is also suggesting a very low cost of ownership calculated at $0.07 per km. The company has already started taking pre-orders for a limited series of 2,000 units, offering discounts for large orders.

Coolon wants to produce their LCV in Ukraine starting from 2022, with an initial capacity of up to 2,000 units per year. By 2024-2025, and with the help of a $50 million investment, they want to increase production output to 20,000 LCVs per year, making them available for export to global markets.