Canada Post has deployed its first all electric delivery vehicles in British Columbia, announcing today the first depot to use them will be in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. This marks the first step in the company’s previously announced goal to convert its entire fleet of 14,000 vehicles to all-electric by 2040, with an interim target of 50% by 2030.
At a press conference in Nanaimo on Thursday Doug Ettinger, President and CEO of Canada Post, and Suromitra Sanatani, Chair of the Board of Directors announced that 14 fully electric Ford E-Transit cargo vans are now part of the Nanaimo Depot’s fleet. The electric vans will be used for both collection and delivery services, replacing aging internal combustion engine (ICE) vans.
The Nanaimo Depot will be the first location to test the electric vans for last-mile deliveries, followed soon by another depot in Quebec. Employees are excited to get behind the wheel, according to Ettinger, who expects them to perform better than their gas-powered counterparts.
“This is an important first step. I think the employees here are really excited. It’s only 14 electric vehicles here, but it’s 14 that we’re going to learn from. We’re going to figure out how best to charge them, how much energy they use on the local utility, how they perform. We think they’re going to perform even better than the current vehicles,” Ettinger said. (via Black Press)
Each van comes with a 68kWh battery pack, good enough for about 190km (118 miles) of range, figure that will be more than enough to cover the typical route which covers around 50km (31 miles) per day.
Along with the Ford E-Transit vans, Canada Post is also working with Morgan Olson to develop the electric C250 delivery truck. The truck is custom built for Canada Post and was modified to run on electricity instead of gasoline. The company unveiled the first demonstration model yesterday in Indianapolis.
