Meet Kia's Futuristic Electric Delivery Vans
DoorDash & Wolt add partners, Instacart lowers free delivery minimums, the death of tipping
This may be a holiday week — meaning no Modern Delivery on Weds or Fri — but there’s still plenty to dig into today. We’ve got some very cool looking new vehicles, a boatload of new delivery partners, some sad stats and then a new consumer-friendly move from Instacart. Let’s get to it!
Today’s edition is brought to you by Curbivore 2025.
Today:
Kia & DHL’s PBVs Deliver the Future
DoorDash & Wolt Add Grocery, Drug Store Partners
Chart Time | Tipping’s Tipping Point?
Instacart Debuts Express Lane for Holiday Cheapskates
VEHICLES | Kia & DHL Tease Futuristic PBVs
South Korean auto giant Kia is rolling out new electric delivery vans, signing on DHL Korea as the eye-catching vehicle’s launch partner. The medium-sized PV5 is set to enter production in 2026, with the larger PV7 joining it the following year. The van is based on Kia’s new “Platform Beyond Vehicle” framework, and is set to help DHL Korea achieve 100% fleet electrification. Other logistics partners are eyeing the platform as well, with Fujitsu set to bring the concept to Japan in 2026.
The Big Picture: Kia plans to build the vans at a modern facility in Gyeonggi province, capable of producing up to 150,000 units per year. Parent company Hyundai is also tooling up to make more eco-friendly trucks and vans, unveiling its new Initium hydrogen fuel cell concept at the LA Auto Show, sitting alongside HTWO Grid — its plans for the production, storage and transport of green hydrogen. Hopefully these tech advancements are enough to lure the South Korean OEMs to offer their commercial vans in the U.S., current offerings like the K2700 and the H-1 are sadly unavailable stateside.
EVENTS | Delivery & Mobility Comes Together at Curbivore 2025
Industry Dive just called Curbivore one of the “9 industry trade shows to attend in 2025.” Returning to the Downtown LA Arts District this April 10th and 11th, Curbivore brings together the world’s foremost fleet operators, restaurateurs, regulators, retailers, startups, technologists and policy makers to discuss the intersection of transportation systems, small business, urban design and commerce.
Score your Super Early Bird Tickets now and save.
3PD | DoorDash, Wolt Add New Retail Partners
DoorDash isn’t resting on its laurels as the year draws to the close; instead, five new grocery partners are joining the platform. The new supermarkets are Fresh Encounter — with 40 stores in the Midwest, Fruitful Yield — with 11 stores around Chicago, Plum Market — with 5 locations in Michigan and Florida, Robert Fresh Market — with six locations around New Orleans, and Stew Leonard’s — with eight stores in the Northeast. DoorDash-owned Wolt is also adding on new partners, signing on a bunch of drug stores and beauty brands across Europe. New shopping options include six Budni stores in Germany, 20 Rossmann locations in Azerbaijan, 39 DOZ Apotek shops in Sweden and 9 Sadykhan spots in Kazakhstan.
The Big Picture: There are a lot of little details to pick at in these announcements, starting with the interesting tidbit that Stew Leonard’s just signed on with Uber Eats earlier this month; some e-commerce manager in Connecticut has been keeping awfully busy! For its part, Wolt is making a very big push into health and beauty, which the company notes is one of its fastest growing categories. It’s also proving to be a good vertical for Wolt Drive, its delivery-as-a-service product, with Finland’s Yliopiston Apteekki now using it to handle prescription and over-the-counter medication deliveries.
CHART TIME | Tipping Takes a Tumble
Are consumers tipped out? Or perhaps we should say “tipped off…” Either way, new data aggregated by Popmenu and Restaurant Dive suggests that shoppers have finally had enough of being asked if they want to add $5 for the courtesy of being rung up for a 30 second retail encounter, with the percent of people not tipping or tipping under 10% skyrocketing in the past year. But here’s a quick reminder — always tip the delivery person!
OPERATIONS | Instacart Lowers Order Minimums for Holidays
Instacart just delivered a holiday gift straight out of a spendthrift’s dream: Instacart+ members now only need to spend $10 to qualify for free delivery. Dubbed “Express Lane” — in honor of that one line at the market where you can quickly check out with 10 items or fewer — the launch is borne out of findings that IC users’ share of $10-$20 basket size orders was up to three times higher around the holidays, compared to the yearly average. The promo went live last week and runs for an unspecified amount of time.
The Big Picture: Instacart calls this the lowest cart minimum for free deliveries in the industry, and that sounds about right. DashPass and Grubhub Plus minimums are usually $12, while Uber One requires $15 spend. On the grocery side, Walmart Plus requires $35 minimum orders, as does Shipt and Amazon (although the latter org has swung that number around wildly the past few years, with it one point being as high as $150.) Sounds like a happy holiday indeed for Instacart+’s food-oriented gift givers.
A Few Good Links
OnTrac secures financing for expansion towards national carrier status. Marc Lore eyes $40-50 billion IPO for Wonder. Ex-Yandex chief touts Avride’s progress, implies Waymo’s SF turf is not a “real city.” Chinese exports surge to get ahead of potential tariffs. Skope brings kitchen-as-a-service to India. Uber said to invest in Pony AI IPO. Southern California emerges as EV and hydrogen trucking’s ground zero. Zomato launches District for reservations, bookings. Pickle’s robot can unload trailers with $50M in fresh funding. Subway launches new online value deal as previous promo falls short. Nebraska sues California because it wants more polluting trucks. Asian online grocer Weee! beefs up ad portal with Topsort. Kroger scores new CMO. Stop & Shop defeats cyberattack. Macy’s employee accused of hiding $132-154 million in delivery expenses. Costa Coffee brings 24 hour drive-thrus to UK. Ola Consumer (née Ola Cab) eyes mega IPO. Noodles & Company launches online store. UOTTA launches battery swap stations. Shipt partners with Red Cross of Alabama-Mississippi. Delivery Hero tech team shares thoughts on grocery products data system, AI-enhanced data discovery. Joby and Archer tease air taxi launch cities. Lyft’s David Risher advocates for federal gig-work legislation. IDTechEX says robotaxi market worth $174B in 2045 (good guess!) Pestle snags recipes from TikTok. CARB approves $35M in incentives for zero-emissions transport vehicles. Singapore grows as AV delivery, robotaxi hot spot. Lyft adds bathroom finder. Teleo raises $16M for remote operations of logistics vehicles. Uber adds cash payments for Hong Kong taxis; will we be able to pay for food delivery in cash next? The strange story of America’s government cheese storehouse.
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— Brought to you by the Curbivore Crew.