Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Sunday February 25 2018, @03:23PM   Printer-friendly
from the I-wonder-who-delivers-the-parts? dept.

UPS will work with partner Workhorse, a battery-electric transportation technology company, to develop and deploy a fleet of 50 custom-built plug-in electric delivery trucks with zero emissions.

The goal is to make trucks that cost as much to buy as do traditional fuel-based delivery vehicles — even without taking into account subsidies. The Workhorse-designed vehicles will be all-electric, and are designed to run on a single charge throughout a normal delivery day and then charge back up overnight.

Workhorse says they'll have a 100-mile range, which is a good fit for in-city routes, and the trucks will first enter testing in urban areas in various parts of the U.S., including Atlanta, Dallas and LA. The test will lead to fine-tuning, which will lead to a larger fleet deployment targeting 2019.

Source: TechCrunch

Also at The Verge, Reuters and Cincinnati.com


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by toddestan on Sunday February 25 2018, @08:05PM (2 children)

    by toddestan (4982) on Sunday February 25 2018, @08:05PM (#643549)

    The UPS distribution centers I know about aren't in the middle of nowhere. Since they are talking about a limited deployment, I would imagine they are going to start with the routes that don't go far from the distribution center. Since the one I'm most familiar with is in a light industrial/office park area, with a residential neighborhood across the street from one side of it, the idea seems very doable.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +3  
       Insightful=1, Interesting=1, Informative=1, Total=3
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday February 25 2018, @10:37PM (1 child)

    by frojack (1554) on Sunday February 25 2018, @10:37PM (#643613) Journal

    How far it it from the city center? Or from you for that matter?
    That you can find a residential area near one, hardly justifies an entire development effort for a new truck.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 2) by toddestan on Tuesday February 27 2018, @03:01AM

      by toddestan (4982) on Tuesday February 27 2018, @03:01AM (#644426)

      It's about 15 miles from the city center, give or take a few miles. It's also about 15 miles from me (I don't live in the city center, but another 'burb). So that's enough range to drive to the city, drive around some, and get back. That's assuming they even have to drive a route. The place I work for does enough shipping that FedEx will bring a truck 100% full of shipments only to us, drop them all off, fill the truck 100% with shipments from us, and go back to wherever they came from (I don't actually know where FedEx's distribution center is). If we switched to UPS they could do the same thing, and that's only about 30 miles - will within range.

      I would guess that UPS knows what they are doing. They have a lot of trucks, and even if they can only replace 10-20% of them, it may very well be worth it if the savings are enough. Keep in mind UPS already designs their own trucks. And this effort is really just the first generation - they'll take what they learn and build a second, third, etc. generation that will be able to replace more of their fleet. It may be a very long time before 100% of UPS's trucks could be electric, but it wouldn't surprise me terribly if in 15-20 years if most of them were electric.