[ducleonctor]

For once, mighty Amazon comes late to the show.

Germany's parcel service DHL builds up a fleet of small electric delivery vans since 2014:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StreetScooter

Living in Bavaria, I see these drive around everywhere now.

[Tade0]

I remember the fury of one of the top VW executives when he discovered that DHL developed their own vehicles instead of hiring VW to do that.

Good for DHL. I would buy such a thing if they sold them to consumers.

[AndyPa32]

I've heard that DHL urged VW and Mercedes for years to develop e-delivery trucks, but both manufacturers did not show any interest. It was kind of last resort to search for partner and start a joint venture to build those trucks.

[reaperducer]

Germany's parcel service DHL builds up a fleet of small electric delivery vans since 2014

In Chicago, FedEx has had electric delivery vans since at least 2005.

I saw a UPS truck in Nevada last month that I thought was a regular UPS truck until it sped away almost silently. I guess UPS has been converting its fleet, but I don't know for how long..

[cr0sh]

UPS has had hybrid trucks here in Phoenix for quite a few years; I haven't seen any fully electric ones yet, but I'm not really looking, either.

[m463]

I've seen frito-lay driving electric delivery trucks driving around for years as well. I do not recall the brand.

[erdleerdle]

be more German

[xxpor]

These seem like they'd never work in the US. They aren't fast enough to go on the highway and their range is limited to 62 miles.

[greglindahl]

There are urban parts of the US where some delivery trucks never go on the highway and don't drive that far in a day.

There are also parts of Germany where delivery trucks need to be able to go on the highway and to drive farther than 62 miles.

[bdamm]

These trucks are solving the "last mile" delivery. Do you see many USPS delivery vans on the highway? That's the market.

[rootusrootus]

In a dense urban environment, 62 miles is still less than most delivery trucks drive. In the US, the actual average overall is more like 2-3x that.

[xxpor]

All the time. That being said, it is Seattle so I-5 isn't usually moving at 50 mph anyway :)

[achenatx]

this quora question has some good answers. Rural routes could be 150, urban routes could be as low as 5 miles but more typically around 60-80

https://www.quora.com/How-many-miles-per-day-does-a-FedEx-or...

[rsynnott]

The US has cities, I believe.

[dx034]

But even those tend to have much lower population density than European cities. In Europe (and especially Germany where this was developed), large parts of cities consist of multi-family homes with a high population density. Those make up a much smaller part of cities in the US.

[orthecreedence]

Do you have any sources to back up this claim?