Mobilize reinvents urban mobility with Duo and Bento

Mobilize is reaffirming its commitment to simple, safe and sustainable mobility solutions designing electric quadricycle Duo and its utility version Bento. Duo and Bento are aimed at both retail and business customers. Duo is a two-seater vehicle and can be driven with or without a licence, depending on the version and local regulations.

Bento is a micro van requiring a driving licence.  Instead of a passenger seat, it has a 649-litre cargo box for carrying small items of equipment and other goods. Duo and Bento are compact (2.43 and 2.54 metres long respectively) and easy to manoeuvre in city traffic. Their small footprint makes them easy to park.

With their central driving position and optimised suspension, Duo and Bento deliver a unique driving experience. They ship as standard with a driver airbag, a first in the quadricycle segment. Both vehicles have a generous range up to 161 km for Duo and 149 km for Bento.

Their large glazed area and elytra doors give them the look of a futuristic space capsule. Designed to be eco-responsible, Duo and Bento both include over 40% of recycled materials and are 95% recyclable. They are natively connected with their own ‘MyDuo’ mobile app, which can be used to generate up to six digital keys, a first for Renault Group.

Unveiled in their definitive livery at the Paris Motor Show, Duo and Bento will be available through the Renault network.

Reinventing mobility

Duo is a quadricycle of strong, customisable design with a small footprint. It is also fun to drive, even without a licence. Alongside the sense of freedom and enjoyment generally associated with two-wheelers, Duo delivers the comfort of a real cabin, with air conditioning, and a heated driver’s seat and windscreen. For a more relaxing ride, drivers can stream their choice of music from a phone using Bluetooth connectivity. The dashboard is also equipped with a USB-C socket and a phone holder.

Optimised for the city

Designed for the city, Duo embraces urban codes and sidesteps the constraints.

A vehicle 2.43 metres long and 1.30 metres wide, its footprint is half that of a conventional city car, so it takes up less space in the cities and is also easier to park, saving users precious time. Duo is also highly compact, with the seats positioned in tandem. Where permitted, three Duos can be parked side by side in a space no bigger than a conventional parking slot.

A turning circle of just 6.80 metres makes for exceptional agility.

A lively drive

At the cutting edge of technology, the proven 48V electric motor is taken from the advanced mild hybrid powertrain of Renault Austral. It delivers strong acceleration, allowing Duo to slip in and out of urban traffic easily.

Range and charging

The 10.3 kWh (usable capacity) NMC battery corresponds to a single module in the battery pack of Renault 5 E-Tech electric. This gives Duo a range of up to 161 km based on the WMTC standard for quadricycle homologation (149 km for Bento). As a result, the range will be well in excess of 100 km for most drivers, even in winter. Duo also recovers energy when the driver releases the pedal, thereby limiting power consumption.

For recharging, Duo features a standard plug in its front hood for domestic connections* or, optionally, a Type 2 plug suitable for most public or company charging points. Duo recovers 25 km of range from a simple domestic socket in just one hour, the time to have lunch. Charging from 20% to 80%, i.e. around 120 km, takes 3 hrs 50 from a domestic socket, and 3 hrs 25 with a Type 2 socket. *depending on the countries

Environmentally friendly

Duo is very much part of a sustainable approach.

It is an electric vehicle with no CO2 exhaust emissions1. It is also eco-friendly in its choice of materials. Materials from the circular economy make up over 40% of vehicle weight: twice the usual figure for conventional electric vehicles. The production of Duo’s parts and components generates 66% fewer greenhouse gases than for an A-segment electric vehicle.

The main body parts, such as the bumpers, wings and wheel arches, include 60% of recycled polymers. Half of these are automotive plastics from end-of-life vehicles, recycled in a closed loop in partnership with The Future Is NEUTRAL, the Renault Group subsidiary specialising in the automotive circular economy. At the end of its service life, the vehicle will be at least 95% recyclable2. Duo’s commitment to an eco-friendlier approach extends to its assembly process at the Tangiers plant, which is ISO 14001 certified. Tangiers is implementing a low-carbon plan, with 90% of its energy needs covered by renewable sources.

Fewer parts

Considerable efforts have been made to limit the number of parts required by Duo, in order to cut the cost of production and repair during its service life.

The front and rear bumpers are identical, as are the rocker panels, which can be fitted on either the right or left. Further, Duo has only one indicator reference, regardless of the position on the vehicle. Overall, it uses five times fewer parts than a conventional car, which also simplifies stock management for after-sales.

Safety features

Duo combines the driving pleasure of a two-wheeler and the agility of a quadricycle with the type of safety features normally found on conventional cars.

It is the only quadricycle on the market to ship with an airbag. The safety belts include a force limiter at the front. Fireman Access is a system exclusive to Renault Group, found on all its electric vehicles.

It saves fire fighters precious time in the event of an accident.

Superior comfort

Duo has made comfort a priority. The main starting point for this is onboard climate comfort, with a heated driver’s seat and windscreen in winter, and manual air conditioning to cool the cabin in the summer. In terms of the suspension layout, the wide tracks allowed optimised positioning of the shock absorbers for exceptional ride comfort, particularly at the low frequencies caused by the speed bumps found everywhere in modern cities.

With its responsive electric powertrain and central driving position, Duo promises a unique driving experience.

I have no doubt at all about its appeal; I can see drivers of conventional cars being won over by its robust design and comfort, while two-wheeler enthusiasts will go for its agility and safe, enclosed cabin – declared Benoit Abadie, VP, Engineering Projects, Mobilize.

A giant cargo box for Bento

Bento features an adaptable cargo box of 649 litres, equivalent to two city car boots!

With a useful volume of almost 1m3, Bento is ideal for providing services in and around cities, meeting the increasingly stringent requirements on environmental performance and congestion.

The cargo box adapts to all conceivable layouts and a wide range of business requirements: repairs, maintenance, personal services or on-demand deliveries.

• 1 excluding wear parts, in compliance with the homologation cycle (WMTC)
• 2 calculated on the basis of Directive 2005/64 EC

Source: Mobilize