ELM collaborates with TOYOTA on micromobility

ELM and TOYOTA collaborate on micromobility vehicles
• A Toyota-led consortium including ELM Mobility Ltd has secured UK
government funding to undertake a feasibility study for a lightweight
Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) passenger vehicle.
• ELM Mobility Ltd is developing its own novel purpose-built last mile
delivery vehicle.
• ELM as part of the consortium, will work with Toyota to help maximise the
number of shared components across the two vehicle platforms aimed at
reducing the combined development costs and benefiting from the
economies of scale the collaboration will bring.

15 October 2025 - The last mile logistics market is rapidly growing but has
significant challenges in cities due to expanding clean air zones, operational
complexity, vehicle efficiencies and reliability.

ELM Mobility is developing a purpose built electric urban last mile delivery
vehicle. It is not much larger than a cargo bike, but with a load volume
comparable to a compact van at half the kerb weight. The result is a step change
in efficiency and environmental performance. Customer studies have shown
reduced fleet costs of 21% and ELM vehicles are set to save over 1.2M Tonnes of
CO2 by 2035.

ELM realises that in order to take advantage of this significant market
opportunity, it must do things differently, learning from the other commercial EV
companies that have gone before it.

A key area of focus is reducing the development costs and ensuring access to
high quality components from robust supply chains. This is particularly true for
niche vehicles like the ELM offering which often require unique parts but are
produced at much lower volumes than mainstream vehicles.

Collaboration is therefore a key ingredient to enable the use of any existing
suitable components and share development costs where new components are
required.

ELM is collaborating with the Toyota-led consortium following securing funding
via the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) from the UK Government’s DRIVE35
programme. DRIVE35 is a £2.5 billion programme of capital and R&D funding for
the automotive industry.

Toyota, who is the lead partner in the project, will be studying a next generation
micromobility passenger car aimed at the European market. The Toyota vehicle
whilst very different to the ELM solution, has the potential to enable considerable
component commonisation.

This project will enable ELM and Toyota to work together through detailed design
activities to identify component sharing opportunities and co-developing
components with a view of them being used across both platforms. The result
will be reduced development cost and lower parts prices due to the increased
combined volumes.

Iain Roche, ELM’s CEO said,
“The cost of developing a modern vehicle is
significant. Our customers expect high quality components and its critical we
access stable supply chains to meet the significant demand we are seeing from
the market. Working with Toyota is a perfect solution; they are global leaders in
manufacturing quality and the parts volumes from the two niche vehicles when
combined together give both parties significant economies of scale”

About the Advanced Propulsion Centre
Advanced Propulsion Centre UK is a non-profit organisation established in 2013
as a joint initiative between the UK government and the automotive industry. Its
primary missions include accelerating the development and commercialisation
of low-carbon propulsion technologies for vehicles, bridging the gap between
industry, academia, and government to foster innovation and build a sustainable
supply chain for the automotive sector.

About Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK (TMUK)
TMUK produces Corolla Hatchback, Touring Sports and Commercial models at
its production centre in Burnaston, Derbyshire, and hybrid engines at its facility
in Deeside North Wales. TMUK began production in 1992 as Toyota’s first fully
owned manufacturing business in Europe and went on to become the company’s
first location for hybrid electric vehicle manufacturing outside Japan. To date,
Toyota has invested more than £2.82 billion in its UK manufacturing operations;
TMUK currently employs more than 3,000 people and supports many further
jobs in its extensive UK supplier network.

About ELM Mobility Ltd
ELM Mobility Ltd was established in 2023 by its founding partners Prodrive
(motorsport and Advanced Engineering company) and Astheimer Design (a
design studio focussed on mobility solutions) and is backed by Barclays Climate
Ventures. It is the designer and producer of purpose-built last mile delivery
vehicles