Ford to partner with DHL on E-van project again

Following reports last week that German postal service DHL was looking to commercialise its ‘Streetscooter’ electric delivery vehicle, the firm has announced a partnership with Ford Motor Company to create a future generation E-van.

The new van will be a larger vehicle than the current Streetscooter and will use the chassis of the Ford Transit as its basis.

It will be equipped with a battery-electric drive train and fitted with a special body construction based on Deutsche Post and DHL specifications.

The start of production is scheduled for July 2017, with at leats 2,500 of the new vans expected to be in service by 2018, initially working in German towns and cities. With this volume, the joint project will make Ford and DHL the largest manufacturers of battery-electric medium-duty delivery vehicles in Europe.

“I consider this partnership another important boost for electro-mobility”, said Jürgen Gerdes, Member of the Executive Board of Deutsche Post AG/DHL. “This step emphasises that Deutsche Post is an innovation leader. It will relieve the inner cities and increase people’s quality of life. We will continue working on completely carbon neutral CO2-neutral logistics.”

“E-Mobility and innovative traffic solutions for urban areas are key focuses for us as we transform our business to meet future challenges,” says Steven Armstrong, Group Vice President and President Europe, Middle East and Africa, Ford Motor Company. “As the leader in commercial vehicles in Europe, this partnership plays perfectly to our strengths and in StreetScooter and the Deutsche Post DHL Group we have a partner with enormous competence and a worldwide network.”

In addition to the new assembly line, the existing manufacturing of the StreetScooter models will be significantly expanded. StreetScooter GmbH is planning to manufacture 20,000 units per year of their successful small electrical delivery van in different versions at factories in Aachen and another site in North Rhine-Westphalia.

There are already 2,500 StreetScooters in use with DHL, and several prospective buyers have signalled their interest or have already received StreetScooters in order to convert their fleet to zero-emission operation.