<story><title>UPS is working on a fleet of 50 custom-built electric delivery trucks</title><url>https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/22/ups-is-working-on-a-fleet-of-50-custom-built-electric-delivery-trucks/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Jakob</author><text>Germany’s Post Office built and used ~2,000 custom-built electric delivery trucks in 2016 and deployed ~10.000 per year since 2017.&lt;p&gt;UPS’s 50 seems very low for 2018 in comparison.&lt;p&gt;One article about them: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;2017-03-24&amp;#x2F;even-germany-s-post-office-is-building-an-electric-car&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;2017-03-24&amp;#x2F;even-germ...&lt;/a&gt; They are called StreetScooter &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;StreetScooter&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;StreetScooter&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jcrawfordor</author><text>I can&amp;#x27;t help but notice that the StreetScooter is significantly smaller than a typical UPS truck. It looks in the size range of a Ford Transit Connect, while most UPS trucks are Utilimaster curb vans that are something like 25&amp;#x27; in length. I suspect that the balance of vehicle size and mileage might make this kind of adoption rather difficult for UPS - I live in a city, but not a very dense one, where I&amp;#x27;m pretty confident that UPS trucks can regularly clock a couple of hundred miles per day.&lt;p&gt;Incidentally this city is also in the process of adopting a fleet of battery-electric transit buses, but it&amp;#x27;s been a very rough process for the same sorts of reasons - very large vehicles that run very long routes in this relatively far-flung city. The buses failure in testing to deliver the promised 270 mile range has been a major issue with them, as the roughly 200 they&amp;#x27;re able to do isn&amp;#x27;t sufficient to complete their planned schedule.</text></comment>
<story><title>UPS is working on a fleet of 50 custom-built electric delivery trucks</title><url>https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/22/ups-is-working-on-a-fleet-of-50-custom-built-electric-delivery-trucks/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Jakob</author><text>Germany’s Post Office built and used ~2,000 custom-built electric delivery trucks in 2016 and deployed ~10.000 per year since 2017.&lt;p&gt;UPS’s 50 seems very low for 2018 in comparison.&lt;p&gt;One article about them: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;2017-03-24&amp;#x2F;even-germany-s-post-office-is-building-an-electric-car&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;2017-03-24&amp;#x2F;even-germ...&lt;/a&gt; They are called StreetScooter &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;StreetScooter&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;StreetScooter&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>eventualhorizon</author><text>This is a pilot run of 50. Think of them as prototypes. They will use what they learn from these prototypes to build a larger fleet.  If they can make these purchase price competitive with their current trucks it will be a huge win.</text></comment>