SNAP

The increase in online shopping with a consequent increase in deliveries and city pollution is the challenge accepted by Francesco Passarella and Sergio D’argento. They founded SNAP to find a solution and design an innovative vehicle.

The idea came about to meet the ever-increasing demand for means of urban mobility, especially after the two years of Covid-19, which changed the habits of many citizens, both due to the need for personal distancing and the restrictive measures of public transport. E-bikes have, in this context, become one of the preferred means of getting around in the city, and a vehicle like the Snap adds to the low environmental impact of e-bikes protection from rain and weather as well as a large load compartment.

Management structure and governance

An engineer and a designer form the SNAP team. Francesco Passarella is a mechanical engineer who graduated with honours from the University of Salento. Sergio D’Argento is a designer who studied at the IED in Turin and the Scuola Politecnica di Design in Milan. They both are from Apulia. They won the PIN project launched by the Apulia Region to foster the growth of business ideas and, then founded Snap Srl in November 2021, a start-up aimed at overcoming the problems of urban mobility ‘with a snap of the fingers’.

Principles of work, objectives and activities

SNAP’s primary objective is to provide means of transport that are both environmentally friendly and useful to today’s market needs.

Target groups

The team targets various groups such as citizens, public institutions, large retailers, enterprises and goods transport and home delivery companies.

Innovation

SNAP’s innovative character lies in its product, a hybrid vehicle (electric or pedal) for sustainable and green urban mobility. The vehicle developed by the team is very lightweight and minimal, with a balanced drivetrain that allows one to ride the car even if the battery is completely discharged and the electric motor cannot be used.

The Snap pedal-assisted quadricycle comes in two versions, the two-seater U1 for private urban use and the C1, a cargo variant of the U1, with one seat and ample cargo space, ideal for city deliveries.

Key partners

Snap collaborates with various local and non-local partners (i.e. Regione Puglia and Agenzia Regionale per la Tecnologia e l’Innovazione), especially in the field of innovation and green transport.

Impact and Evaluation

Impacts can be multifaceted. For example:

• respect for the environment: city centres increasingly pervaded by smog and pollution would benefit from the widespread use of green means of transport
• easier travel: the vehicles designed by SNAP guarantee easier travel, especially in our historical centres, where there are traffic restrictions and infrastructures that prevent four-wheel vehicles from moving easily
• couriers would find it less difficult to deliver, especially since Covid-19 has completely changed consumer habits and exponentially increased online sales volumes
• reduced vehicular traffic volumes in urban areas

Recommendations

SNAP recommends always seeing opportunity in necessity. Respect for the environment is a necessity that can be linked to more conscious and respectful mobility, without giving up our lifestyle. The smog that we breathe every day and which is one of the factors of climate change must be tackled. To do so, we must completely rethink our daily urban mobility.

Lessons Learned

It is necessary to be flexible in the development of a complex and ambitious project. The knowledge acquired through years of study and the team members’ previous work experience was a springboard for the realisation of new ideas. SNAP aims to overcome the problems of urban mobility through the design of innovative vehicles. Always be clear about your goal and don’t abandon your values: in SNAP’s case, the synthesis is obviously engineering applied to respect for the environment.

References

PIN program profile of the company.