Woolworths has rolled out fully electric Mellowvans as branded mobile coffee carts, announced by MellowVans CEO Neil du Preez on LinkedIn. The three-wheeled EVs are designed and built in Stellenbosch, with 70% local content, and will operate as roving Woolworths Cafe units rather than as a delivery fleet.
Interesting insights on Woolworths’ coffee Mellowvans
This is the second EV chapter for Woolworths, which already runs a 41-strong Everlectric panel-van fleet for online grocery deliveries in partnership with DSV, on track to hit the retailer's 2040 zero-net-carbon goal.
Mellowvans are a different play: smaller, three-wheeled, road-licensed L5 vehicles with a 130km range and running costs around 15c per kilometre at Eskom rates.
The Stellenbosch-built EVs are already used by Takealot, Spar and DHL, and Mellowvans became the first SA automotive OEM to clear European and British homologation, opening up export markets across the EU and UK.
The new Woolworths build is the cafe-on-wheels version, complete with branded panels and pop-up coffee service, designed to bring the Woolies Cafe experience to events, malls and high-traffic spots without a fixed storefront.
This is the local-on-local we kept asking for
This is exactly what we hoped to see when we wrote about Mellowvans previously. A big SA retailer choosing an SA-built EV over a Chinese import for a visible, brand-defining application, not just a backroom delivery van. It tells SA founders that the big customers do notice, and that local manufacturing with global certification (EU homologation is not easy) gets you to the table with the corporates.
The math also works: a 130km range covers a full day of city event-hopping, and the running cost makes the unit economics look genuinely attractive next to a petrol bakkie. If this pilot lands, expect more SA corporates to follow, and expect Mellowvans to start showing up in more EU cities too.
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