According to the company, an unladen Penso-bodied vehicle is around 400kg lighter than most competitors’ models. When mounted to a diesel chassis, the lightweight aerodynamic design of the Blue Ocean pod allows around 30% less diesel usage, reducing harmful emissions.
Beyond the lightweighting elements, Penso has designed the pods to be easy for drivers to operate. Operators have the ability to carry more and heavier goods and a larger volume, allowing for more deliveries and cutting the number of vehicles needed to serve the same number of customers. Blue Ocean pods carry up to 50% more payload and increase capacity by as much as 30%.
Daniel Hurcombe, managing director at Penso, said, “Creating a carbon fiber pod could be seen as an expensive exercise purely to reduce weight; but developing the commercial and operational model alongside the design, engineering and manufacturing process has been just as important. In fact, it’s the commercial and market demand to reduce weight which drove the solution.”
Additionally, at the end of the pod’s life, more than 95% of the structure can be recycled, including the carbon fiber elements.
