The recent Chapter 7 failure of EV startup ELMS has probably emboldened some EV haters to rejoice, but electric last-mile delivery trucks remain the strongest immediate bet in EVs, in my opinion.
The four largest home delivery fleets in the US — Amazon, UPS, FedEx, and DHL — know what the North American Council on Freight Efficiency is predicting: An electric last-mile van uses about $2,000 in energy per year, compared to $10,000 -Dollars per year in fuel, charged at $2.98 per gallon. That wasn’t enough to save ELMS from its financial woes, alleged stock market speculation and executive departures.
ELMEN
The company offered a Class 1 urban van with a range of 110 miles at a base price of $28,000 and a larger Class 3 chassis that would normally be fitted with a cargo box with a range of 125 miles. These range figures would overwhelm any electric car buyer, but they are actually proof of why electric delivery vans make sense: they can fulfill an important working role with an easily achievable range and, moreover, harmonize with many other characteristics of electrification.
Rewarding grunt
Vans need ample torque and there’s a better way to use it than hitting 60mph in 2 seconds. Electric motors deliver almost all of their massive torque from 1rpm, while petrol and even relatively high-torque diesel engines need to be coaxed and revved to deliver maximum torque.
UPS has hired electric delivery truck maker Arrival to begin building its fleet of electric last-mile trucks in local “micro-factories” across the US, UK and Europe.
UPS
Good at walking slowly
There are few things less efficient than internal combustion engines, which use most of their fuel to generate waste heat rather than move the vehicle they’re built into, and slow, stop-and-go driving is combustion inefficiency in their worst form. But electric powertrains are hardly phased by this driving pattern and remain efficient when cruising around town. Freely adapted from Eric Schmidt: The fact that delivery vehicles were powered by combustion engines is a bug in automotive history.
Routes kill fear
There’s not much reason for range anxiety when you know exactly where you’re going, down to the distance, number of turns, stops, traffic conditions and terrain. That kind of knowledge makes it clear if you’re going to have enough cargo and is the kind of planning and analysis that has long been part of local trucking. It’s the opposite of the unpredictable driving that we do (and imagine we will) do with our private cars. And while the charge analysis gauge on EV dashboards is just data art for most owners, it matters a great deal to fleet operators. Electric delivery vans come home for a fee or are not sent at all.
Frequent use is crucial
The best way to recoup the high marginal costs of electrification or autonomy is to use the product as much as possible. Delivery trucks work 8 to 12 hours a day instead of sitting parked for 95% of their lives, their advanced features are rarely used. Electric work trucks should pay back their investment faster than a Tesla Model S Plaid avoids itself.
ELMEN
Low floors are important
Remember the last time you moved and how tiring it was loading things in and out of that truck? A low, level truck bed is a big deal on vans, which are well served by the flat, low-mount batteries used by most electric vehicles. Eliminating an engine and its powertrain also eliminates the “dog kennel” that often occupies the center of the cab and can require a design with an extra step. Even a step eliminated in getting in and out of the cab when a driver stops can create a more enjoyable, less tiring day and a slightly more attractive job.
Even with gasoline priced at $2.98 per gallon, the energy cost difference between electric and gasoline last mile trucks was huge.
NACFE
Delivery fleets get it
Amazon recently announced it would buy up to 100,000 Rivian electric vans, although the company will later source them from Ram as well Jeff Bezos ripped Rivian about the delivery of the vehicles. FedEx will only buy electric delivery vehicles by 2030. UPS has ordered 10,000 electric delivery vans to be deployed across the US, UK and Europe by 2024. And you might not even have known that a fifth of DHL’s delivery truck fleet is electric, because it uses familiar-looking Ford Transits converted by Lightning eMotors.
It’s not clear how much Americans will be driving when we emerge from the pandemic, but local delivery miles still have a long way to go. Getting that job done with clean, quiet, and economical vehicles for the last mile seems to be the most obvious priority in the immediate future of electric vehicles.