The Royal Mail, the UK postal service, is trialing completely electric vans from carmaker Arrival. Arrival, also based in the UK, has partnered with the postal service to operate nine trucks to deliver mail and packages in London and surrounding areas. The trucks are three different sizes and will begin deliveries today from the postal service’s central London hub.
The electric vans are co-branded, have a range of 100m, and will produce zero emissions, according to the company. Arrival used to be called Charge and is run by Russian businessman Denis Sverdlov, known as the inventor of the Yota Phone, and as current CEO of motorsport championship Roborace. Arrival has a new factory in Banbury, and the electric vans are some of the first vehicles produced there. The company claims it’ll be able to produce 50,000 vehicles yearly from the factory, using just AI and robots.
“Cities like London will benefit hugely from a switch to electric, in terms of both pollution and noise,” said Sverdlov in a statement.
Arrival says the electric vans are the same price as diesel trucks, which makes the environmentally friendly vehicles more accessible.
The Royal Mail’s fleet is currently comprised of 49,000 vehicles, and the trucks are known for their red color and cross bar logo with a crown, which have become pretty iconic. The new design, as described by Engadget, does look like a futuristic version of Postman Pat’s truck. These are the trucks they’ll be replacing:
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