UPS Teaming Up With Workhorse to Deploy 50 Electric Delivery Vans

DooKey

DooKey

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UPS has already committed to purchasing 125 Tesla semi trucks and now they are looking into deploying 50 custom made electric delivery vans as well. They're working with Workhorse to make this happen and the goal is to be able to match the cost of existing conventional-fuel vehicles. Testing will occur in cities for the most part and if it works well they will end up replacing the majority of their delivery fleet with electric-powered vehicles.

"Electric vehicle technology is rapidly improving with battery, charging and smart grid advances that allow us to specify our delivery vehicles to eliminate emissions, noise and dependence on diesel and gasoline," said Carlton Rose, president of global fleet maintenance and engineering for UPS. "With our scale and real-world duty cycles, these new electric trucks will be a quantum leap forward for the purpose-built UPS delivery fleet.
 
Hopefully we will get an answer to how well the grid works when large numbers of heavy duty EVs are plugged in for charging in one spot.
 
Dead Parrot said:
Hopefully we will get an answer to how well the grid works when large numbers of heavy duty EVs are plugged in for charging in one spot.
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Except there's no need to recharge them all in one spot. Even if there is a central package dispatch depo (like at the airport), you don't have to recharge the trucks there. You can charge them overnight at smaller depots out near the routes they run, and then bring them in to pick up packages in the early morning.
 
2 things. 1. this doesn't help the so called "environment" one bit. 2. expect long ship times with ups.
 
RC-Heli-3D said:
Bad move in my opinion, battery technology still has a way to go.
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Yup, it would make a lot more sense for them to use natural gas powered trucks instead -- more efficient and possibly cleaner since much of the electricity comes from non-renewable sources in most areas. I know that it is a political show to make the green crowd happy, but yeah, insignificant and premature.
 
RealBeast said:
Yup, it would make a lot more sense for them to use natural gas powered trucks instead -- more efficient and possibly cleaner since much of the electricity comes from non-renewable sources in most areas. I know that it is a political show to make the green crowd happy, but yeah, insignificant and premature.
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Natural gas is not an exponential technology and is already more expensive than solar and wind (even with batteries) and is equivalent when there are no subsidies

 
Sure why not. Less diesel soot smoke blowing vehicles on the road can't be a bad thing. I think the electric local vehicle option might be a little more suited for UPS than the long haul trucks... I still haven't read how that charging infrastructure is supposed to work out at that scale.

You know who really needs to get in on this? USPS. They drive the crappiest, barely running mail delivery vehicles and you know they must get horrible mileage. But, being USPS, they'll have no money to spend on anything innovative. But more automated kiosks and less postal workers working counters at post offices? Oh hell yeah they are all over that.
 
travisty said:
Just like any exponential technology, when the price is right companies will jump in. By investing now, UPS knows it'll only get cheaper.
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If it works for them, that's fine.
However, if the main reason they are trying this is to take advantage of some huge tax breaks then it's just wrong.
 
travisty said:
Natural gas is not an exponential technology and is already more expensive than solar and wind (even with batteries) and is equivalent when there are no subsidies
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Not even close. When they build a solar or wind plant, they also have to build a gas plant to fill in when the sun isn't shinning or the wind isn't blowing. No way double building is cheaper. There's also the fact that even with huge subsidies, Solar and Wind plants are still lagging and many large plants are only producing a fraction of the power that they where projected to produce.

Plus, as a consumer, I can tell you it would cost me at least double to heat my water, my home or dry my cloths with electricity instead of gas.
 
Anything must be better than those archaic US bread vans. They use them here in the UK in right hand drive and the drivers hate them as they are so behind the times.
 
nutzo said:
Not even close. When they build a solar or wind plant, they also have to build a gas plant to fill in when the sun isn't shinning or the wind isn't blowing. No way double building is cheaper. There's also the fact that even with huge subsidies, Solar and Wind plants are still lagging and many large plants are only producing a fraction of the power that they where projected to produce.

Plus, as a consumer, I can tell you it would cost me at least double to heat my water, my home or dry my cloths with electricity instead of gas.
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Don't blame me that you live in California ;) (hint California and its monopolistic prices (20+ cents / kw) are far from the norm which is closer to 10-12 cents / kw (or mine which is 6 cents / kw))

There's no need to double build either. You're talking out of ignorance, not fact.
 
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Wait where are all the haters? Normally by now we would have two or three dozen posts claiming these would never work and how stupid an idea it is. Oh right its not Tesla so its mostly ok...
 
travisty said:
Don't blame me that you live in California ;) (hint California and its monopolistic prices (20+ cents / kw) are far from the norm which is closer to 10-12 cents / kw (or mine which is 6 cents / kw))

There's no need to double build either. You're talking out of ignorance, not fact.
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No I'm not. Where do you think power comes from when it's raining or dark? Not from all those solar panels.

One of the reasons our power is so expensive here in California, is they force the utilities to buy more expensive green energy (solar and wind) and then the utilities have build smaller gas fired plants to pick up the slack when the solar & wind energy isn't there.
 
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