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Wheelys, who sells coffee carts, has entered China, but only sells coffee.

Published: 2026-08-22 Author: World Gafei

Last Updated: 2026/08/22, There are many ways to do coffee and beverage business. You can join a standardised brand like Starbucks, or you can open your own boutique and access to the takeout platform Wheelys Caf, a start-up that wants to offer interested individuals another way to run coffee: set up roadside stalls. They designed a multi-functional and environmentally friendly coffee car. This looks like

There are many ways to do coffee and beverage business, you can join a standardized big brand such as Starbucks, or you can open your own boutique and access to the takeout platform. Wheelys Caf é, a start-up, wants to offer individuals interested in this area another way to run coffee: set up roadside stalls.

They designed a multi-functional and environmentally friendly coffee car. What looks like a tricycle is all powered by solar energy and pedals. They claim that the device is 100% carbon balanced-it does not increase the total amount of carbon dioxide in the air. A coffee car has a stove, sink, generator, refrigerator and microphone.

So far, they have launched a total of four versions of Wheelys. In recent versions of coffee cars, they have incorporated some intelligent elements. The premium version of Wheelys 3 comes with Wifi and Android-you can control the temperature of your coffee on a tablet, and there is even a greenhouse in the car where you can grow coffee beans. In the latest Wheelys 4, they have also installed air purifiers and wind power plants.

Unlike most coffee chains, Wheelys Cafe's main operator makes coffee. Anyone who uses the Wheelys brand is joining their "franchise": they must purchase ingredients that meet their requirements-organic and Fair trade. There are more than thirty kinds of drinks and snacks on their official menu. Among them, the category of coffee has reached 10. Wheelys also encourages adapting to local conditions. For example, their coffee truck in Jordan sells Turkish coffee.

However, it may be risky to do a Wheelys Caf é franchise in the first place. The barriers to joining are low (which is the attraction of their business model), and there is no guarantee that people who buy Wheelys cars will pay attention to food quality and safety. If there is a Wheelys with food problems, the fledgling brand will be fatally hit.

At present, Wheelys Cafe has a total of 315 coffee cars in 51 countries and regions. Per Cromwell, one of the founders of Wheelys, said their goal is not to become a dominant brand like Starbucks, but it can also grow to a reasonable scale. Their vision is to help people who can't find a job and don't have enough money to open a cafe to generate income in an environmentally friendly way.

By the way, it costs only $3499 to $6999 to buy a coffee car, and you can keep 95% of your income and deliver 5% to Wheelys Caf é.

Wheelys is a product designed by the Scandinavian Association for Innovation and Exploration (The Nordic Society for Invention and Discovery). Wheelys Caf é is a company born out of this Swedish innovation laboratory (the two founders overlap). According to Wheelys's website, it has raised a total of $2 million so far. Wheelys was selected as the project of the famous incubator company Y Combinator (hereinafter referred to as YC) in the summer of 2015 to accept the incubation of YC. Of course, $120,000 for such a coffee car YC is certainly not enough. Wheelys has sold cars on Indiegogo many times and raised about $878,000.

The idea of a mobile coffee cart may be more difficult to implement in China-you probably need to fight wits with relevant managers. Another obstacle is that, in most people's minds, "roadside stalls = dirty / poor quality". Other countries are different. Especially in the United States, food truck (selling food and drinks in trucks) is a trendy food culture. The restaurants in these trucks contribute a lot of innovative food and will be recommended by many food blogs. That's probably why YC has his eye on Wheelys.

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