A growing chain of coffee shops is taking its service on the road. Coffee Fellows recently added a mobile café to its offerings.

Built from an all-electric GM BrightDrop van, the mobile café allows Coffee Fellows to brings its signature lattes, coffees, and snacks to festivals, farmers markets, and other happenings across the Houston area. After a couple of trial runs, the van will make its official debut this Saturday, April 11 at the Art Car Parade. The company claims the van is Houston's first all-electric mobile coffee shop.

Coffee Fellows North America CEO Daniel Ogbonna tells CultureMap that an electric vehicle was a natural choice for the company, which places a high enough value on sustainability that it serves all dine-in guests in reusable china mugs rather than add to landfills by using disposal cups and utensils.

“An electric van was a natural thing to do,” Ogbonna says. “It helps play a role in preserving the environment.”

As Ogbonna explains, the van has one battery that powers the vehicle and a second battery for its latte machines, coffee grinders, lights, menu board, and other equipment. A solar cell helps the battery recharge during service. All told, the van can operate for up to nine hours. Best of all, since it’s an EV, it doesn’t use a noisy generator or require propane the same way a conventional, gas-powered food truck does.

Of course, all-electric power comes with some trade-offs. The van serves almost everything a brick-and-mortar Coffee Fellows cafe does — including two exclusive lattes, Ube Coconut and Biscoff Caramel — but some compromises had to be made. Since the van doesn’t have an oven or a blender, both bagel sandwiches and frozen drinks aren’t available. Certain preparations have been tweaked to allow the baristas to serve them more quickly.

“One of the biggest things with the van is paying attention to speed,” Ogbonna says. “We have a shorter menu that allows us to deliver the beverages and food items to our customers in a short period of time. That requires a little bit of thinking to figure out — what is it that customers typically want and how can we deliver it to them in the mobile van with greater speed?”

Ultimately, Ogbonna would like Coffee Fellows to operate multiple vans that could introduce the brand to new customers before brick-and-mortar locations open in their neighborhood. Although it was founded in Germany in 1999 and has four Houston-area locations, the company is still building awareness, especially compared to its national competition.

“We think we have great drinks that can go toe-to-toe with the big name coffee companies,” he says.