Logistics giant DHL, also known as Deutsche Post, has committed to buying 2,000 electric delivery vans from Ford for last mile deliveries by the end of 2023. .
The company aims to use these new electric last-mile delivery vans – which are quiet and have zero tailpipe emissions – in many markets, including the right-hand drive market of the UK, the European markets of Germany, belgium, Bulgaria, the Netherlands and the Xcech Republic, and Mexico.
The order for EVs from Ford includes Pro EVs and the E-Transit, which has been a top seller for Ford’s commercial vehicles.
DHL is also targeting 60% of its vehicles in logistics to be pure EVs by 2030. That’s over 80,000 vehicles that will need to be transitioned in the next 8 years.
With delivery vehicles travelling more distances than many other passenger cars, the economics of running and maintaining an EV delivery vehicle are in favour of operators like DHL.
Others delivery companies like Amazon have also announced big investments of over $1.5 billion AUD in European EV delivery operations.
After seeing such developments in Europe, we look forward to electric delivery vans and trucks playing a bigger role in Australia’s logistics and transport landscape. This would help with decarbonising our transport system sooner.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.