France’s La Poste has issued a tender to buy 500 electric vans for postmen and women to drive fromnext year, with a view to increasing the number to 10,000 within five years if they prove
successful.The state-owned postal company, which has been trialling the technology with Dassaultsubsidiary SVE in Paris and Bordeaux, says tests have shown that the 500 vans will reduce itscarbon dioxide emissions by 2000 tonnes. The running cost of electric vehicles is six times lessthan their diesel equivalents, La Poste said.
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La Poste said it was also trialling 10 electric quads (four-wheel motorcycles) in differentFrench towns and had equipped 600 mail delivery workers with electrically-assisted bicycles, in itspush to become the biggest user-owner of electric transport in Europe.
“(We) are positioning ourselves as a pioneer in the mass use of vehicles of this type,” LaPoste said in a statement yesterday. “They will be deployed everywhere in France.”
La Poste will be following in the footsteps of other express and mail companies employing thetechnology, however.
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.
La Poste has a fleet of 50,000 vans and has drawn up a plan to curb greenhouse emissionsthroughout the group by 5%.
