FedEx announced the addition of a test run of four electric delivery vans to their US fleet. They’ve commissioned the vehicles to be built from the ground up and they’re slating them to start their shifts this coming June. Two of the vehicles were unveiled this week. Designed by the UK company Modec, distributed in the US by Navistar and hailed by the New York Times as “the cutest electric vehicles” they’ve seen, the vans can run up to 100 miles on an overnight charge.
There are 10 of these exact vehicles on the ground in London and they are successfully delivering packages on a daily basis. The vans in the US will be placed in Los Angeles where the only star treatment they’ll recieve is getting a charge-up over night instead of a fuel-up in the morning. The vans will be running daily 8 hour shifts just like all the other gas guzzling (and hybrid) vans in the fleet. FedEx means to prove their technology right.
FedEx is a leader in alternative energy package delivery. They’ve already got 1,800 alternative energy — mostly hybrid — vehicles in service around the world including an entire fleet in the Bronx, New York. They also understand the infrastructure that needs to be put in place to make this all work. They note on their website the need for an improved electric grid to power a huge fleet of electric vans — one van added to the grid is equivalent to one house of electricity. Looks like FedEx has their eyes on the no-gas horizon and they’re making their way there with real action.
+ FedEx Earth Smart
Via + Renewable Energy World
Fleet vehicles are a fantastic opportunity for the emerging EV market as their required mileage and therefore power requirement is known prior to the vehicle departing for the round. Well done FEDEX for your forward thinking and congratulations to Modec for perseverance and pioneering spirit.
I’m with Dru — FedEx deserves a lot of credit for their experimenting with various alternative vehicles.
The point about fleet adaption is right, too; that\\\’s akin to chain stores adopting solar panels — both provide economies of scale to help the manufacturers get prices down.