Urban Cargo, the French truck redefining urban logistics
- Published on 26/11/2025 15:34
- Modified on 26/11/2025 15:35
Urban Cargo, designed by the French company Incitis, reinvents urban delivery by combining performance and environmental impact.
Urban delivery is undergoing a profound crisis, fueled by the continuous growth of e-commerce, structural congestion in city centers, and unprecedented regulatory pressure related to Low Emission Zones. Current heavy-duty vehicles, designed for versatile use but rarely for urban environments, are now showing their limits: too tall, too noisy, too cumbersome, too dangerous, and especially too slow when it comes to making multiple stops.
In this reality, carriers must deal with time-consuming routes, increasing burdens on delivery drivers, and skyrocketing operating costs. It is in this complex context that a major innovation emerges, born in France: Urban Cargo, designed and developed by Incitis, a company aiming to sustainably revolutionize last-mile logistics. Nothing less.
In a city like Paris, 5 million tons of goods travel 20 km each day, representing thousands of trucks on the road. Furthermore, the UN estimates that 66% of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2050. These are parameters to integrate from today to think about the delivery methods of tomorrow.
You might be interestedin this article:
A paradigm shift in architecture
Urban Cargo disrupts the norms as it addresses, point by point, the technical, economic, ergonomic, and environmental challenges of modern cities. Where a conventional heavy-duty truck requires the use of a tailgate and numerous dangerous maneuvers, the vehicle developed by Incitis can lower completely to ground level, allowing delivery drivers to make deliveries at ground level, much faster and significantly safer.
This innovation, unique in the world for a 19-ton truck, eliminates much of the physical strain, reduces the risk of accidents, and enhances the pace of operations. Tests conducted in real-world conditions with pilot customers demonstrate a spectacular gain: 30% time saved per route, equivalent to one fewer vehicle for every three in a fleet of comparable size. No other technology currently on the market offers such a significant operational impact.
The design of the vehicle is based on a simple logic: adapt the truck to the city rather than forcing the city to adapt to the truck. The extremely low platform facilitates frequent movements for drivers and enhances their safety by providing exceptional visibility of their immediate environment. This panoramic view helps reduce the risk of accidents with vulnerable road users, particularly pedestrians and cyclists. Additionally, there are five side and rear openings, distributed on three sides of the vehicle, allowing instant access to goods, even in the most complex parking situations.
This functionality radically changes the life of delivery drivers: no need to unload part of the truck to reach a product located at the back, access is direct, regardless of the order of the route or traffic conditions.
Urban Cargo is also designed to maximize flows, an essential lever for unclogging urban centers. With a payload of 8 tons, it replaces 6 to 7 light utility vehicles, thereby limiting the presence of multiple small vans in city centers. Its capacity to carry 14 Europallets or 25 rolling containers allows for optimal logistical densification while maintaining maneuverability suited for demanding urban environments. Maximizing to make fewer trips: the logic is simple, but it was still necessary to propose a vehicle truly designed to do so.
Big, strong, but ecological
From an energy standpoint, Urban Cargo also represents a break. The truck is based on a 100% electric architecture, combined with hydrogen, biomethane, or plug-and-play battery range extenders according to the needs of the carriers, allowing for a range of up to 400 km. This technological choice offers a dual advantage: ensuring sufficient autonomy for peri-urban routes while remaining competitive with diesel, a crucial point in encouraging carriers to adopt the technology without relying on public subsidies.
Designed to meet the PIEK certification, Urban Cargo is also silent, paving the way for nighttime and semi-nighttime deliveries, which helps relieve pressure on congested time slots.
The revolutionary nature of Urban Cargo is also explained by the nature of the company behind it. Incitis is a 100% French initiative, created by eight experts in transport, commerce, industry, and finance, all intimately familiar with the realities of the B2B market and professional logistics. The company benefits from the support of the European Inno fund, the Piroux Group, the PFA, the CEA-Liten, and international partners such as Akkodis and Symbio. Certified by CARA, French Tech, and the Deeptech plan from Bpifrance, the company is also supported by the state through France 2030. In just a few years, Incitis has already filed five patents, including two with worldwide relevance, evidencing the technological depth of the project.
This page is translated from the original post "Urban Cargo, le camion français qui redéfinit la logistique urbaine" in French.
We also suggestthese articles:
Also read
