Deutsche Post has said the first ever electric vehicle to be designed specifically for postal delivery has been granted an operating permit.
The German national postal operator has been developing the StreetScooter vehicle with a consortium of 30 European companies and RWTH Aachen University since 2011, completing a prototype in October 2012.
Yesterday the company revealed that the vehicle has received a permit from vehicle certification agency DEKRA, confirming it is roadworthy.
Deutsche Post said it will now deploy 50 of the StreetScooter vehicles by the end of this year, with 20 to be based near its headquarters in Bonn and a further 30 at delivery depots across Germany.
The first vehicle should begin operation toward the end of next month, as part of a pilot project providing carbon neutral delivery in Bonn.
Jürgen Gerdes, the corporate board member for Mail at Deutsche Post DHL, said he was confident the StreetScooter would now pass the test of operating day-to-day mail and parcel deliveries.
“The StreetScooter is not only carbon efficient and quiet, it has also been developed according to the requirements of everyday postal requirements and so perfectly matches our needs,” said Gerdes.
The company said the vehicle had received its DEKRA permit after “extensive” testing of its technical specifications, including electromagnetic compatibility, the ability of a vehicle to operate without causing electromagnetic disturbances to anything around it.
The StreetScooter has been designed to handle 200 stops and starts a day, in service up to 300 days a year.
The vehicle offers a range of up to 120km on a single recharging, although this is likely to be closer to 80km in a stop-and-go mail delivery service. About 4.6 metres long, the vehicle offers cargo capacity “ideal” for joint delivery of mail and parcels, according to the postal company.
Deutsche Post has trialled various alternative drive technologies, including hybrid engines, all-electric vehicles, natural gas power and biogas vehicles. The company said electric vehicles like the StreetScooter are particularly suited for driving in stop-and-go traffic.
The vehicles emit virtually no air pollution and create no noise, while the German Post described the prospect of transport that does not rely on fossil fuels ‘was a “forward-looking investment”.
“Testing and putting them into operation now provides us with important data to support widespread production in the future,” the company said.
Bonn pilot
Next month Deutsche Post will begin deploying 79 electric vehicles in the Bonn area, including the 20 StreetScooters, in a pilot seeking to turn mail and parcel delivery across the city into a “carbon-free” activity.
The Bonn electric vehicle fleet should grow to 141 by 2016 under current plans.