Boosting our EV fleet
More than 2,000 new electric vehicles (EVs) have been ordered by the business.
We’re proud to be the greenest delivery company in the UK, with the lowest reported carbon emissions per parcel and continue to take further steps to reach Net-Zero by 2040.
Matt Gower, Head of Environment, Social & Governance, said: ‘We already have the UK’s largest electric vehicle delivery fleet with over 5,000 EVs and, last week, as part of the new vehicle replacement plan, we announced a further 2,100 new electric vans have been ordered for delivery this year. This will increase the size our current EV delivery fleet by almost 50 per cent and help us take another big step forward in our Net Zero ambition.
‘Many of our customers have their own Net-Zero goals, and as a logistics supplier the more we can do to reduce our emissions the more likely customers will choose us for their logistics.
‘In addition, as all our electricity is sourced from renewables, charging our electric vans on-site means they are zero-emissions.’
The average carbon saving compared to a Royal Mail diesel van is 2.87 tonnes CO2e per annum, so we expect to save around 6,000 tonnes of CO2e per year when the vehicles are fully deployed.
We are also delighted that over 50 per cent of the new electric vans are being manufactured in the UK by supplier, Stellantis (Peugeot).
The first 600 of those EVs are expected to arrive in August and will be deployed to 28 delivery offices that already have charging capacity in place.
The remaining will be deployed across the UK, with the aim to deploy them at around four locations per Regional Operations Director region. The fleet team are working with the regional teams to identify suitable sites based on; ease of charger installation, driver behaviour and ensuring even distribution across all the regions.
With more than half of the EVs planned for deployment prior to peak, we will be able to deliver a ‘greener’ Christmas for even more customers this year.
The new diesel vans and trucks in the replacement plan will also be Euro 6 compliant, reducing fuel use and providing a further slight reduction in carbon emissions, compared to the less efficient older diesels they will replace.
We will update you when the vehicles start to arrive at sites and look forward to celebrating deployment of our 7,000th electric van later in the year.
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