Toyota and Douze bring eCargo bike to the French market

Friday, 13 October 2023 Simon Cox

In 2022 CIN ran a feature highlighting a partnership between Toyota France and French eCargo bike manufacturer Douze. More than 12 months later industry colleagues at French cycling publication Weelz! have actually ridden the bike, and tested the purchasing experience.

A brief introduction for readers outside of France: Douze Cycles, a French business that specialises in modular and configurable bikes, typically sells into France, Germany and Switzerland. With demand rising, the business has invested in a new production unit of over 2,000 m² in size. Thirty employees are spread over two sites.

Now back to Jérôme Sorrel and the team at Weelz!

Yes, we’ve tested this Verso, the eCargo bike offered by Toyota and Douze. It was during the press days organized in mid-September. We went to Douze in Longvic, a suburb of Dijon, to visit the production site and test the bike. First we’ll provide a little context, the explore the experience of riding the bike.

From project to concrete

This is a story that Weelz! have been able to follow from the start. In July 2022 Toyota made the following official announcement, in front of an audience of hand-picked journalists (Weelz! was the only cycling media invited): “At the end of 2023, Toyota will offer a cargo bike in its range, a bike which will be produced by Douze Cycle”.

Available in dealerships and online?

The bike is marketed under the name Verso, Toyota x Douze. It is designed based on the Heta, which Weelz! had also previously exclusively reported on. Now in December of 2022 Luca Neyroz, Toyota France marketing director, assured us: “as we speak to you (editor’s note: Wednesday 20th of September at 10:00 a.m.), 120 bikes are on the road to be delivered to the dealership. The bike is already available in order online”.

On Thursday 21st of September, at 5:00 p.m. we checked online – the bike is offered in the new vehicle section. It can be found quickly by making a web search for “Toyota Douze Verso”.

Online, bikes are available to lease from €99/month for private use, and €115/month for business users, through Toyota Financial Services.

On the other hand, if you go directly to the Toyota home page, the tree structure of the site makes it complicated to arrive on the page. We found the Vélo Verso Douze x Toyota by entering ‘Douze’ (or cargo bike) into the site’s search engine.

The Weelz! team have also secret shopped, visiting 2 dealerships at random during our Parisian wanderings. As at the end of September, the Boulevard Pereire, and Boulevard Saint-Marcel dealerships are awaiting arrival of Douze x Toyota Verso cargo stock.

The Toyota Verso eCargo bike; a Heta Douze with Japanese flavour

The Toyota Verso eCargo bike and the Heta Douze share the same chassis, the same peripherals, the same components, the same accessories, the same price (approximately).

However, the bikes don’t have the same motors. Whilst the Hêta is equipped exclusively with Shimano EP6 or EP8 (the Bafang motor, announced in our December article, was ultimately not selected). Toyota, however, has, logically, turned to Yamaha for the electrical part. Logic ? Toyota is the largest shareholder of the Diapason (tuning fork) brand. Not something most will know (including ourselves, until very recently).

Visually, the bikes do not have the same colour; Red for Toyota. Grey for Heta.

Toyota Cargo Verso, the Japanese cargo bike Made in France

Billboard showing Toyota x Douze eCargo bike Let’s also quickly recall what seems important to us: this Toyota Cargo Verso is a cargo bike Made in France. The different parts of the chassis are all manufactured within a radius of less than 300 kilometres from the Longvic factory. The frame parts are made from an aluminium foundry. And, as you can imagine, that part of this aluminium comes from… Toyota Yaris bodies.

For insight into how the Vélo Verso Douze x Toyota rides, an extensive review by the Weelz! team can be found here.

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To find out more about car manufacturers across the auto industry introducing integrated mobility offerings, on 4 wheels and 2, CIN recommends following articles: