Nearly five years ago, the U.K.’s postal authority, the Royal Mail, issued stamps commemorating a British cultural staple: Doctor Who. And now the Royal Mail is putting into test service an all-electric truck design that could just as well be a prop for that beloved show, perhaps in a London street scene decades in the future.
Produced by the U.K.-based commercial-vehicle maker Arrival (formerly called Charge Auto), these extra-tall trucks have retro-style double-decker bus or vanlike bodywork that is actually futuristic in that it is built of “revolutionary ultralightweight composite materials” to minimize mass. Arrival, which boasts of the vehicles’ custom-built hardware, motors, and power electronics, wouldn’t release precise specifications for the trucks being tested but did say the truck batteries are optimized for inner-city deliveries—and for a driving range of up to 100 miles.
The trucks are being used on a trial basis for mail collection and package transit between distribution centers. All of them will operate out of the Royal Mail’s Mount Pleasant depot in central London. The first trucks going into service have a 13,200-pound weight rating, while three trucks with a 7700-pound rating and three others that can carry 16,500 pounds will be delivered later.
Half the Cost to Run
Arrival says these trucks are priced the same as equivalent diesel models. Denis Sverdlov, Arrival’s CEO, called the entry price the main barrier to users making the transition to EVs. The company also notes that operating costs are half those of existing models—assuming the composite bodywork doesn’t prove too expensive to fix.
Company spokeswoman Victoria Tomlinson emphasized that—contrary to what some other outlets have reported—the vehicles delivered to the Royal Mail are not equipped with autonomous driving technology. She said that, while the company does make autonomous-ready vehicles, that element is not part of this trial.
The Arrival trucks are among the first to be built at the company’s 110,000-square-foot factory in Banbury. The Royal Mail has a fleet of 49,000 trucks, and this isn’t the first time it has tested electric vehicles. Here in the United States, the U.S. Postal Service is in the midst of choosing a company to supply an advanced-technology vehicle to replace its 180,000 trucks at $25,000 to $35,000 each. And parcel carrier UPS claims to have about 8500 alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles in its fleet of 108,000. Globally, there could be big money just in replacing short-distance package-delivery trucks with more efficient electrified ones. Perhaps someday Arrival’s trucks will be perceived as being as quintessentially British as a London Taxi—or the TARDIS.
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