UBCO donates AWD Electric Utility Bikes to National Park Service
UBCO is donating up to 100 AWD electric utility bikes to the National Park Service, starting in California, Nevada, and Oregon, to support trail improvements, site restoration, law enforcement, and general operations in parks across the U.S. The National Park Service protects and preserves over 85 million acres throughout the U.S. The partnership is based on an alignment of purpose between both organizations, with the donation of bikes from UBCO providing National Park employees with a safe, sustainable, quiet, and low-impact form of transport to carry out essential work.
“Our focus is on safe, lightweight electric utility bikes that deliver carbon and operational cost savings at scale,” says Phil Harrison, senior vice president of Special Projects at UBCO. “Conservation is a key priority for us, and it’s a privilege to be able to donate vehicles to the National Park Service that make it easier for staff to carry out their work and preserve parks for future generations.”
The partnership’s objective is to identify and validate use cases within the parks where the bikes could replace the use of larger, internal combustion vehicles and offer new ways of working. UBCO bikes will be delivered in two phases. Phase 1 includes six parks in the Pacific-West Region (listed below), where UBCO will work with each park, fleet, and safety managers to develop standard operating procedures. Phase two will see the balance of bikes deployed to other parks across the U.S.
In Phase 1, UBCO bikes will be delivered to:
- Crater Lake National Park, Oregon
- Golden Gate National Recreation Area, California
- Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Nevada
- Channel Islands National Park, California
- Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, California
- Joshua Tree National Park, California
“UBCO is a unique, AWD electric utility bike with broad fleet application,” says Oliver Hutaff, CEO of UBCO. “It’s a fifth-generation product with unrivaled off-road performance credentials. Our vehicles are deployed at scale across a multitude of use cases with federal, state, and local government agencies in the U.S., as well as New Zealand, Australia, and Europe, including the Department of Conservation in New Zealand, who manage a land area of over 20 million acres.
“We are excited to work with the National Park Service and their park teams to deliver on carbon reduction goals, contribute to operational fuel cost savings, and bring safe and innovative technology to park operations,” Hutaff says.
Bikes deployed in Phase 1 have already been well received. Chad Marin, chief ranger at Golden Gate National Recreation Area says, “I’m looking forward to what we can achieve with e-bikes as part of our toolkit.”
“Safe, sustainable, and cost-effective modes of transportation are essential to our park operations,” says Ray Murray, chief of Partnerships Pacific West for the National Park Service. “We look forward to this partnership.”
