"Food carts are a staple of New York City dining, dispensing everything from dosa and doner kebabs to dogs and dim sum in short order. But no matter how enticing the aroma of a cart's food, the smelly gas generators that keep the lights on threaten to put customers off their meals. Cart owners and customers may not have to suck on fumes much longer."
""Are e-bike packs the perfect energy type to be powering food carts? Maybe, maybe not," Hammer said. "I would argue it doesn't matter. What matters is, can you solve distribution and charging?" PopWheels currently operates 30 charging cabinets around Manhattan, which serve gig workers riding e-bikes, most of whom use either Arrow or Whizz models. That's resulted in a "de facto decentralized fleet," Hammer said, allowing the company to stock just a few different types of batteries to serve hundreds of customers."
""This really started out as a lark last summer," David Hammer, co-founder and CEO of PopWheels, told TechCrunch. "I'm an ex-Googler from the early days, and this felt like a classic, old-school 20% project." Normally, PopWheels battery packs are zipping around the city strapped to food delivery bikes. The team soon realized that connecting them to food carts was an avenue worth pursuing."
Food carts in New York City rely on smelly gas generators that can deter customers. A Brooklyn startup, PopWheels, is testing the use of e-bike battery packs to power food carts, beginning with La Chona Mexican at 30th and Broadway. PopWheels operates 30 charging cabinets across Manhattan that serve gig-e-bike riders, creating a decentralized battery fleet. Many delivery workers need multiple batteries per day and face high costs from charging services and battery wear. PopWheels aims to solve distribution and charging logistics, reduce rider expenses, and repurpose existing e-bike infrastructure to electrify food carts.
Read at TechCrunch
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