After bringing in €3.2 million in funding and raking in a list of pre-orders, Podbike says it will deliver its first electric bike-car known as the Frikar later this year.

The Norwegian mobility company Podbike has attracted attention for years as its innovative and curious-looking four-wheeled electric vehicle has taken shape.

The enclosed bike-car offers better all-weather protection and improved aerodynamics compared to a typical commuter electric bicycle, though the top can be removed for summer operation if all-weather protection isn’t required.

Amazon says it will buy thousands of Ram ProMaster electric vans a year beginning in 2024.

The folks at Inside EVs noticed something in a press package from CES 2022 that most others missed. It said, “As part of a separate agreement with Stellantis, Amazon will be the first commercial customer for Stellantis’ new Ram ProMaster Battery Electric Vehicle launching in 2023. Stellantis, with input from Amazon, designed the vehicle with unique last mile delivery features and Amazon will deploy the vehicles to routes across the United States. Building on the current relationship and as part of the long-term agreement, Stellantis and Amazon will be putting thousands of BEV ProMasters on the road every year.”

Amazon has bought thousands of delivery vans from Mercedes, Ford, and Stellantis to bring packages to its customers in North America for years. Even though it has a 20% ownership stake in Rivian and expects to purchase 100,000 of its electric delivery vans, its need for such vehicles is so massive that it will continue to buy trucks from traditional manufacturers to get the hundreds of thousands of packages it delivers every day from its warehouses — called fulfillment centers — to its customers.

The upcoming battery-powered Ram ProMaster will be the brand’s first ever all-electric model when it debuts in the second half of 2023 as a rival for Ford’s E-Transit and Rivian’s EDV. Stellantis hasn’t yet revealed any details about its electric delivery van, Inside EVs says, but it’s expected to be based on the updated 2022 Ram ProMaster unveiled last August.

The researchers used extrusion printing to manufacture the electrodes, interconnects, encapsulation, and insulation. Active layers were then spray painted on at room temperature. All in all, six layers were 3D printed to build a flexible and fully functioning display.

“OLED displays are usually produced in big, expensive, ultra-clean fabrication facilities,” said Michael McAlpine, senior author of the team’s new study. “We wanted to see if we could basically condense all of that down and print an OLED display on our table-top 3D printer, which was custom built and costs about the same as a Tesla Model S.”