Is Hybrid-electric Vehicles The Life Line For Courier Services

One of the world’s biggest courier companies, Fedex, has just added 10 hybrid-electric vehicles to its UK fleet.

The makers of the vehicles are Modec a London based company. The company say that each van should save between 10 – 11 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year, travelling an average of 14,000 miles per year.

The vans are made perfectly for delivering parcels  in a city environments.  The vans run on batteries giving the vans a range of 60-100 miles on one night charge depending on the battery choice, and with a max speed of 50 mph and a pay load of 2 tonnes. The rate of battery development is continuing to accelerate and it’s not unlikely to have a product that can store up to three times more energy within three years.

The Modec claims that it’s hybrid van will cost  the same as an equivalent diesel van within three years, if battery costs continue to fall at the predicted rate.  With fuel costs of only 7p per mile compared to 29p for equivalent diesel van the Modec vehicles are not only good for the environment, they also look as if they’re going to be good for the wallet too!