TWINSHIFT
Stilfold x California Metals Sustainable Mobility
Twinshift was a project that created a Digital Twin pilot to track the lifecycle of a sustainable mobility device—from raw material sourcing to the final customer. It successfully delivered a digital twin that integrated California Metals’ sustainable material databases with STILFOLD’s innovative production technology. Ultimately, the project proved that radical decarbonization is achievable when smart design meets responsible material sourcing.
Twinshift successfully delivered an electric cargo bike prototype that achieved a 53% weight reduction and a 50% decrease in CO₂ emissions compared to an industry-leading Asian platform. Powered by a tool-free robotic process requiring only 12 kWh per chassis, the project’s data revealed a 20x CO₂ multiplier effect when scaling this technology to heavy transport.
California Metals, a leader in sustainable metal technologies, and STILFOLD, the Swedish design and technology company behind industrial origami manufacturing, formed this strategic collaboration to reshape how we create the mobility solutions of tomorrow.
Since up to 70% of a product’s total CO₂ emissions are embedded in the materials themselves, optimizing supply chains and minimizing material usage were identified as critical levers for decarbonizing manufacturing. By aligning early-stage design with low-impact materials and data-driven production, STILFOLD and California Metals established a new benchmark for clean, circular industrial ecosystems.
Key Insights & Project Results
The project developed a physical demonstrator—an electric cargo bike—alongside a functional Digital Twin dashboard. This dashboard combined California Metals’ material data with STILFOLD’s design data to accurately calculate the total climate footprint and energy consumption.
The quantifiable data revealed groundbreaking insights:
- 53% Weight Reduction and 50% Less CO₂: STILFOLD’s "industrial origami" unibody design cut the chassis mass by over half and reduced the total carbon footprint by 50% compared to a market-leading Asian cargo bike platform.
- Material Savings Drive Climate Benefits: The data confirmed that material reduction was the absolute largest factor in cutting climate impact, surpassing even the benefits of the manufacturing process itself.
- Only 12 kWh Energy Consumption per Chassis: STILFOLD’s tool-free curve-folding process proved to be incredibly energy-efficient compared to traditional, energy-heavy sheet metal pressing.
- 20x Multiplier Effect for Heavy Transport: While the cargo bike served as the physical demonstrator, the lifecycle analysis (LCA) data showed that applying this mass-reduction logic to heavy trucks creates a multiplier effect of over 20x in operational CO₂ savings.
“The cargo bike proves the principle. The real climate impact occurs when the same design logic is applied to larger structures in trucks, cars, and industrial systems.”
— Jonas Nyvang, CEO of STILFOLD
“For years, the industry has focused on greener alloys, but the real opportunity lies in combining responsible material sourcing with smarter structural design. By integrating detailed lifecycle data into a digital twin environment, Twinshift enables manufacturers to see exactly where carbon is created—and where it can be eliminated.”
— Michael Resl, CEO of California Metals
Lessons Learned
Innovation comes with challenges. The team noted that extracting and synchronizing the necessary data from existing systems into the Digital Twin took significantly longer than initially anticipated. On a collaborative note, the transatlantic partnership revealed valuable cultural synergies: the American partners proved to be highly practical, fast-paced, and execution-oriented, which complemented the project's ambitious timeline.
The Role of Future Mobility
The support from the Future Mobility program was the catalyst for this breakthrough. As CEO Jonas Nyvang noted during the project's conclusion, without Future Mobility, this initiative simply would not have happened. The program provided the dedicated resources and focus required to rigorously quantify the data—a crucial step that finally proved, in hard numbers, just how effective STILFOLD’s product and method are.
"Without this project, we wouldn't have been able to prove just how good our product and method are. We simply wouldn't have been able to produce these fantastic numbers. Furthermore, we likely wouldn't have built such a close relationship with California Metals or developed the cargo bike concept without the support from Future Mobility." — Jonas Nyvang, CEO of STILFOLD.
Furthermore, beyond financial backing, being associated with Future Mobility lent essential weight and credibility to the initiative. It was this specific support that made it possible for STILFOLD to forge such a close, long-term partnership with their American counterpart, California Metals, and to invest the time required to bring the physical cargo bike demonstrator to life.
Future Outlook
The results of Twinshift laid the groundwork for the sustainable production of urban EVs and next-generation mobility solutions. The partners intend to maintain their collaboration on a commercial basis, with ambitions to secure further funding to evolve the Digital Twin dashboard into a public-facing customer application. Furthermore, the material efficiency insights gained from this project are highly relevant and transferable to other sectors, including construction, furniture, and aviation.
Project manager: Jonas Nyvang, CEO, Stilfold
Parties: STILFOLD and California Metals
Period: 2025
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Hans Pohl
Jan Hellåker
