DPD have announced that they are partnering with London EV Company (LEVC) to conduct a series of road trials ahead of the launch of their new VN5 Electric Van later this year.
Interestingly The London EV Company was once known as The London Taxi Company, the brand behind the iconic London black taxicabs and they are owners of the first dedicated EV car plant in the UK. The 2.5 tonne low emissions VN5 EV that DPD are hoping to add to their fleet of electric vehicles towards the end of the year will offer a fully electric powertrain with a Pure EV range of 63 miles, and a total flexible range of over 300 miles. The tests being carried out by LEVC will test it’s ability to perform in different driving conditions, and with different loads and on different types of routes.
DPD have always been achievers in the EV game and are well on their way to having a fleet of 600 electric vehicles by the end of 2020 with other models in the works for the future, bringing a more sustainable future closer than ever. As with all new technologies, challenges have been prominent in the path to electric delivery and DPD state they have seen issues in the supply of EV’s and the range that they can travel. Since EV’s are still quite new, only time will tell how reliable these machines truly are and how costly they will become when parts need replacing.
“We are committed to having the greenest fleet in the UK, as soon as possible. While EVs remain our priority, we are keen to look at a wide range of technologies to help solve different challenges. We’ve developed a great model for large urban centres and EVs are working well out of our regional depots on many routes. But, inevitably, we have a number of routes where we have to drive a significant number of stem miles from the depot just to get to the first delivery address. At the moment, the limited range on pure EVs, means we can’t move away from diesel vans for these routes.”
– Dwain McDonald, DPD’s CEO
