Our investment in Zebra Fuel
At LocalGlobe we’re always trying to spot the surfers capable of riding the big technology waves. There are few sectors where the waves are as well defined as in the car industry. There are two big waves rolling in — electrification and autonomy. The surfers on these waves are building hardware and software that will transform the transportation of people and goods. The vision is clear — faster, safer transportation from A to B enabled by connected, renewable-powered autonomous vehicles. The key challenge is reading the peaks, troughs and speed of the waves.
Given the waters ahead are choppy, rather than thinking about the profound changes on the car industry driven by electrification and autonomy — let alone the second or third order consequences — it’s worth thinking about what stays the same. What problems don’t get fixed.
For all the promise of transformation, fixed point refuelling remains inefficient for people and cities. Today, drivers detour to petrol stations to fill vehicles — adding to journey time and congestion. A couple of weeks ago James May aka Captain Slow looked at the most unpleasant aspects of modern motoring, concluding by far the worst of them was having to stop to fill up with fuel. Following some highly unscientific research he established that the average motorist spends 36 days of their life filling up with fuel. And the costs extend beyond the driver, in dense cities such as London the space occupied by forecourts is a very precious commodity.
Similarly, electric vehicle drivers use fixed point charging stations. The installation and operational overhead of maintaining charging points is expensive. As a result, on-street charging is still sub-scale in London and other cities, reducing consumer demand for EVs. Over the last year we’ve seen city bike sharing programmes that use fixed point docking stations — like the Santander Cycles in London — supplanted by mobile bikes — Ofo, Mobike et al. The same shift from fixed point stations to mobile is needed in vehicle refuelling. Hard technology problems do need to be solved to shorten radically the time taken to charge electric vehicles. But these problems are no more complex than those across computer vision, mapping and sensors that must be solved for autonomy.
That’s where Zebra Fuel come in.
Zebra Fuel’s vans bring fuel directly to your vehicle. It is the easiest way to get your vehicle refuelled, whether you’re an infrequent driver or a business that refuels a fleet of vans daily. Today Zebra delivers diesel, with petrol and electric available soon. The company’s next product is ZebraBio — a biodiesel made from waste products, such as used cooking oil from the catering industry. As the Mayor’s Biodiesel Programme supports London’s buses and public sector road fleet, Zebra Fuel will support consumers and businesses to cut their CO2 emissions.
When we first met Zebra Fuel founders Romain and Reda, it was clear that safety was their top priority. The Zebra service had to be safer than a petrol station. To make this happen, the founders worked with a top-tier team of petroleum industry experts, product engineers, and regulators. The Zebra Fuel delivery van has been designed with expert craftsmanship to deliver fuel safely — and at twice the speed of a petrol station pump.
All of us at LocalGlobe are excited to be leading an investment in Zebra Fuel, alongside our friends at Firstminute Capital. As the car industry transforms over the next decade, we are looking forward to Zebra Fuel playing a role in making it easier to get around.
