What a difference, the university of Aachen (Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen) almost 50 years ago and today. It was a time without professors, with a good mechanical workshop after all, and not only because of a lack of vehicles but also because there were few opportunities for experiments. The Ford Transit on the roller test stand of nearly the same age had to hurry to measure its performance because its exhaust glowed white already.

Nevertheless, a lot was learnt because the assistants covered many areas and were happy to hand over responsibility to the few students. Nowadays all this has grown into a big complex with lots of measuring stands, computers, parts, vehicles and other donations from industry, unfortunately with a ban on photography.

From 1970 to 1997, the Austrian Franz Pischinger Professor of Applied Thermodynamics, his son the successor, is also in the 1978 founded company FEV, which tests and develops engine technology, today employs almost 4,000 people worldwide. The building complex of the Institute for Motor Vehicles (Institut für Kraftfahrwesen Aachen) is simultaneously the building of the research company automotive engineering (Forschungsgesellschaft Kraftfahrwesen Aachen), today owned by ZF Friedrichshafen AG and Voss Automotive GmbH, Wipperfürth.

However, around 2010, the initiative to build an electric car came from the Chair of Production Management under Professor Achim Kamper. As early as 2011 there will be a presentable prototype (picture above) and he founds the company Streetscooter together with his colleague Günther Schuh.

As the story continues, the head of German Post, Jürgen Gerdes, becomes aware of the prototype and completely takes over the company at the end of 2014. The former car now has a large closed box and a payload of 650 kg at 1,500 kg empty weight, can travel 80 km with 80 km/h. The prototype was delivered by the end of 2014. Instead of an energy-guzzling air conditioning system, there is a seat heater.

And to top it all off, the first 1,000 customers are offered a Wallbox free of charge. More than 1,000 kg payload at 3,200 kg promise an unladen weight of less than 2,200 kg, with the street scooter however only 1,640 kg at 8 m³ load volume. The battery with more than 40 kWh should be good for 150 resp. 100 km with full load and bad weather. The latter is already a credible value, as the street scooter should be able to cover 80 km at 30 kWh in practice.

Isn't such an energy balance amazing when you consider that 8.9 kWh is only one litre of petrol? With the eVito for example, the customer can choose between two maximum speeds. And with 84 kW, the power of the electric motor is almost twice as high as that of the Streetscooter. However, both still seem to lack equipment for quick charging at public stations.

If the box with the only 35 cm high side walls is filled to the brim with sand, with an average density of 2 kg/dm³ of more than 3 tons must be assumed. What use is a three-way tipper if you are only allowed to load 700 kg?

One can only hope that battery capacity has been added to the cooling unit under the chassis, otherwise the range will shrink alarmingly in summer.

This is now an envisaged development in which a street scooter is to follow the parcel deliverer autonomously so that he/she does not have to run back to the vehicle again and again.

After the Streetscooter project had been taken over by German Post, the developers turned to a new project. Production is scheduled to start in April 2019.