UPS delivery van (Image: UPS)
United Parcel Service (UPS) builds its own electric delivery van for parcel delivery. Also the German postal service This is the procedure, but already a few years ago.
UPS and its partner Workhorse, a battery electric drive company, want a fleet of 50 electric delivery vehicles develop, These are made especially for UPS and will be used in 2018. UPS wants to produce the vehicles as cheaply as traditional trucks with internal combustion engines. Vehicles should be fully electric, operated on a single load during a normal delivery day and charged overnight. This is also the case with other manufacturers of the plan to build electric trucks for urban delivery. As a rule, there are no long distances covered.
Workhorse claims to reach a range of 160 km. The vehicles will be used in various US cities, including Atlanta, Dallas and Los Angeles. The results of the test will be used in an even larger experiment. A complete conversion to electric drives is not yet planned.
UPS currently has around 35,000 diesel or gasoline trucks in service. As early as November 2017, UPS and the New York State Energy Development and Development Authority decided on a test basis to convert some parcel delivery vehicles from diesel to electric vehicles, The conversion will be carried out by Unique Electric Solutions, which plans to build a new chassis with battery, electric motor, brakes and wheels.
Daimler and other manufacturers are also developing electric delivery vans. In the coming years, Daimler intends to sell all its truck and bus models in an electric version as well. A lighter electric truck called Fuso eCanter At the end of 2017, Daimler handed over pilot customers in Berlin. The all-electric truck from Daimler’s series production should be suitable above all for the delivery traffic in inner cities. The mass production is scheduled to start in 2019. The range of the battery should be more than 100 km.