Royal Mail has announced it is testing nine UK built fully electric trucks this month. The lorries are built by Arrival, a Banbury based automotive technology company.
The pilot will involve Royal Mail using 3.5, 6 and 7.5 tonne trucks as of August 23rd from the Mount Pleasant depot in London. These will be used to move parcels between mail and distribution centres in central London and the surrounding area.
The co-branded red Royal Mail electric lorries are the first to be produced from Arrival’s 110,000 square foot factory in Banbury.
Arrival’s trucks are built using ultra-lightweight composite materials on their chassis and bodies that dramatically reduce the weight of the vehicles, allowing for more weight in the battery and drivetrain systems. Combining this with Arrival’s custom built hardware, it is estimated that the operating costs of the electric vehicles haven been reduced by more than 50%.
The trucks being tested by Royal Mail have been optimised for inner city deliveries using a battery system that maximises range to weight ratio, enabling them to run for up to 100 miles per charge. The vehicles also comply with the TfL Direct Vision Standard for lorries in London.
Paul Gatti, Royal Mail Fleet’s Managing Director, said: “Royal Mail is delighted to be collaborating with Arrival and pioneering the adoption of large electric commercial vehicles. We will be putting them through their paces over the next several months to see how they cope with the mail collection demands from our larger sites.
“We have trialled electric trucks before but not of this type of innovative design and look forward to see what additional benefits they can bring to our existing fleet of around 49,000 vehicles.”
Denis Sverdlov, CEO of Arrival said; “We are thrilled to partner with Royal Mail using our electric vehicles. Cities like London will benefit hugely from a switch to electric, in terms of both pollution and noise. Most importantly we are priced the same as diesel trucks removing the main barrier to go electric.”
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