Instead of abandoning the postal service completely for the sake of the environment, Britain is making it 100% electric.
The Royal Mail Goes Electric
The Royal Mail has kept its signature color red, but is starting to make its vehicles fully electric. By just last week, they have made nine of its vehicles fully electric and have already put them to work. They are expecting to replace all of its 49,000 delivery vehicles with zero-emission electric vans over the next few years.
An Oxford-based automaker, Arrival, as well as a carmaker called Peugeot have partnered with the Royal Mail to start their slow transition to electric vehicles. Arrival has given them the opportunity to have their vans come in varying sizes and kilometer range. The Royal Mail has ordered 100 electric vans from Peugeot after a successful trial run of their cars.
The Environmental Effect of Electric Vans
Although it is a slower transition, it makes a huge difference in the history of Britain’s postal service. The Royal Mail has been in business for 120 years, and all transportation accounts for 24% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the U.K.
These vans can travel 100 miles (or 160 km) on a single charge. A regular delivery van produces 168.3 grams of C02 per km. This means that replacing these 49,000 fossil-fuel run vans with electric ones will save the U.K. over 800 million grams of CO2 for every 100 miles these vans drive. It goes to show that one small step makes one massive change for the future.
References: BBC, Arrival, Peugeot, Gov.uk, European Commission, Business Insider.
