France’s public postal operator, La Poste, has drawn up a plan to replace thousands of vans in itsfleet with electric vehicles in a bid to curb greenhouse emissions by 5%.
A trial of eight Cleanova electric vans, made by Dassault subsidiary SVE, in Paris andBordeaux proved so successful that La Poste has embarked upon a five-year plan to replace the bulkof its 50,000 fleet with them, according to an article by the Wall Street Journal Online.
SVE has not yet settled on the price for the van, which runs on a lithium-ion battery and,although more expensive than conventional vehicles, its operational cost would be about one-sixthof the petrol equivalent.
The manufacturer expects to begin production for La Poste at the end of this year, with theassembly of 1,000 vans. From 2009, the company – which has other clients such as French electricityutility EdF and eventually wants to sell it to the public – is planning to ramp up production toabout 20,000 vehicles a year. A hybrid electric/diesel version is also planned.
La Poste will be following in the footsteps of other express and mail companies employing thetechnology.
UPS and FedEx have such vehicles in service in the USA and TNT has a 7.5 tonne electric truckon trial in London which it is considering introducing to its fleet worldwide. Royal Mail is alsorunning electric vehicles in Oxford, UK.
