Royal Mail trials electric trucks for first time

The British postal service is testing out two 19-tonne electric heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) to assess their performance compared to Royal Mail's existing fleet of traditional trucks and lorries. The service is already set to deploy over 7000 small and medium-sized electric vans by 2027, but this will be the first time that it tests out larger electric vehicles.

The vehicles in question will be Magtec MEV190 electric trucks. These 19-tonne trucks are geared towards urban and regional deliveries, and will be used to ship post and parcels between Royal Mail delivery depots. In that regard, they are testing their functionality for middle- and last-mile logistics, with Royal Mail’s existing fleet of electric vans geared more towards local deliveries.

The trucks have a stated range of up to 125 miles on a single charge, with five modular 60kWh battery packs making up a total battery capacity of 300kWh. Full charge is achievable within approx. three hours via a CCS2 charging interface rated up to 100kW. Magtec estimates a battery life expectancy of 2500 cycles with 80 per cent capacity retention, aided by a passive cooling system. They won’t be going very fast though – the top speed is capped at 90kph (56mph) thanks to a 200kW motor.

The trucks are built in the UK and garbed in Royal Mail’s iconic red livery. The first vehicle will be based out of the Greenford Mail Centre in North West London, where it’ll be used to deliver mail to and from nearby delivery offices. The trial will be used to examine the possibilities for switching to EVs across Royal Mail, and is being supported by an £800,000 grant from Innovate UK.

Anna Pearson, Fleet Innovation and Environment Manager at Royal Mail, said: “We’re excited to welcome the Magtec truck to the Royal Mail fleet. We’ve been rolling out electric vans in our ‘final mile’ fleet for a number of years, and now we want to learn more about how we can decarbonise our national distribution fleet of over 4000 trucks. This trial will help strengthen our position as the UK’s largest electric delivery fleet operator, while ensuring we have the reliability we need for the challenge of delivering to every single one of the UK’s 32 million addresses.”

Marcus Jenkins, CTO at Magtec, added: “This collaboration represents a significant milestone in advancing EV technology for medium-duty trucks. By addressing the challenges of power inefficiencies and range anxiety, we aim to provide fleet operators with a reliable, cost-effective solution that supports their decarbonisation goals while maintaining operational reliability.”

internationaldistributionservices.com