Massey students win national design award

Thursday 19 September 2019

Massey students have once again gone the extra mile to win the national James Dyson award with their Electric Cargo Trike design.

Electric Cargo trike team

The Electric Cargo Trike team.

Last updated: Thursday 19 May 2022

Massey students have gone the extra mile to once again win the national James Dyson Award, this year with an Electric Cargo Trike design.

With New Zealanders increasingly dependent on delivery services for parcels, particularly with increased online shopping, a group of six industrial design students identified a gap in the market for sustainable package delivery alternatives in urban and suburban areas.

The Electric Cargo Trike is a compact, tilting electric vehicle designed to address environmental issues, efficient package delivery and safety for couriers.

The designers, Daniel Shorrock, Chris Warren, Fergus Salmon, Zoe Lovell-Smith, Liam Avery and Oscar Jackson, say it is significantly different from any existing vehicles, with its focus on handling and driver experience. They were inspired by sports bikes and the increasing trend of Kiwis moving to more sustainable vehicles.

“We know New Zealanders care about the environment and think they would feel better if they had an electric trike delivering their parcel than having a van in their driveway,” Mr Shorrock says. “We had four main prototypes, over 10 CAD [computer-aided design] models, and countless sketches and Lego models getting to this final product. We spent hundreds and hundreds of hours over 12 weeks trying to make this the most effective, safest, and easy vehicle to use, and we think we finally got there.”

Future plans for the Electric Cargo Trike see a range of possibilities, including use on farms. Mr Sharrock says they see this working well within an agricultural context. “Potentially replacing quad bikes with a vehicle that is much safer. The tilting mechanism makes it much harder for the vehicle to roll over and injure the driver.”

Another Massey graduate, Sian Hosking-Berge, was named a runner-up for her kitset BOU Bike design. It is the second year in a row that Massey students have won the top prize, and 16 out of 19 national James Dyson awards have been awarded to Massey students.

Electric Cargo Trike

The Electric Cargo Trike in action.

Subject director and senior lecturer in industrial design Lyn Garrett says the award is a recognition of the innovation and creativity that students are producing at Massey.

“We are thrilled for the Electric Cargo Trike team and Sian. They have put in an incredible amount of work, and it’s rewarding to see them recognised. We are also honoured that our students have once again been named as the top winner of this prestigious award.”

The young designers will receive $3500 and will now progress to the international stage of the James Dyson Award, with the hope of winning up to $55,000 and $9000 for their university. Their entries will be judged by a panel of Dyson engineers who will select an international shortlist of 20 entries. The top 20 projects are then reviewed by Sir James Dyson, who selects the international winner.