Thursday 24 August 2017

Royal Mail unveils new electric vans

Royal Mail is to start trials of nine all-electric vans in London this month.

It has unveiled the commercial vehicles produced by Oxfordshire-based carmaker Arrival, which recently opened a new factory in Banbury.

The postal operator will begin the trials with six-tonne, 3.5-tonne and 7.5-tonne vans.

They will be based at Mount Pleasant Mail Centre in London, which has already been fitted with charging stations.

The vehicles will be used to transport mail between distribution centres in London and the South East.

Paul Gatti, Royal Mail Fleet’s Managing Director said: “We are pleased to be the first fleet operator to take delivery of and trial these new larger payload vehicles which will complement the 100 electric vans we recently ordered.

“We have trialled electric trucks before but not of this type of design and look forward to see what additional benefits they can bring to our existing fleet of around 49,000 vehicles.”