UPS partnering with Workhorse to develop fully electric Class 5 delivery truck

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Jason Cannon, Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ)  /  February 22, 2018

UPS says it will deploy 50 plug-in electric delivery trucks and will collaborate with vehicle-maker Workhorse Group to design the vehicles from scratch.

Following real-world test deployments on urban routes across the country, including Atlanta, Dallas and Los Angeles, UPS and Workhorse expect to fine-tune the design in time to deploy a larger fleet next year.

UPS President of Global Fleet Maintenance and Engineering Carlton Rose says he expects the electric vehicles to be competitively priced with conventional-fueled trucks without subsidies.

“With our scale and real-world duty cycles, these new electric trucks will be a quantum leap forward for the purpose-built UPS delivery fleet,” he says, adding the all-electric trucks will deliver by day and re-charge overnight.

Workhorse claims the Class 5 vehicles will provide a nearly 400 percent fuel efficiency improvement and each will feature a range of approximately 100 miles between charges.

“This innovation is the result of Workhorse working closely with UPS over the last four years refining our electric vehicles with hard fought lessons from millions of road miles and thousands of packages delivered,” Workhorse Group CEO Steve Burns says. “Our goal is to make it easy for UPS and others to go electric by removing prior roadblocks to large scale acceptance such as cost.”

The new trucks will join the UPS’s “Rolling Lab” fleet of more than 9,000 alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles. UPS has more than 300 electric vehicles deployed in Europe and the U.S., and nearly 700 hybrid electric vehicles. The company in December ordered 125 new fully-electric Semi tractors to be built by Tesla in 2019, the largest pre-order to date. Last September, UPS announced it will become the first commercial customer in the U.S. to start using three Fuso eCanter medium-duty electric trucks.

UPS says its goal is to make the new electric vehicles a standard selection, where appropriate, in its fleet of the future. UPS has approximately 35,000 diesel or gasoline trucks in its fleet that are comparable in size and are used in routes with duty cycles, or daily miles traveled similar to the new electric vehicles.

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UPS to Add Zero-Emissions Delivery Trucks

Transport Topics  /  February 22, 2018

UPS Inc. plans to deploy 50 plug-in electric delivery trucks that will be comparable in acquisition cost to conventional-fueled trucks without any subsidies — an industry first that is breaking a key barrier to large-scale fleet adoption.

The company is collaborating with Workhorse Group Inc. to design the Class 5 vehicles from the ground up, with zero tailpipe emissions.

UPS ranks No. 1 on the Transport Topics list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America.

“With our scale and real-world duty cycles, these new electric trucks will be a quantum leap forward for the purpose-built UPS delivery fleet,” Carlton Rose, president of global fleet maintenance and engineering for UPS, said in a statement.

Workhorse claims these vehicles provide nearly 400% fuel efficiency improvement as well as optimum energy efficiency, vehicle performance and a better driver experience. Each truck will have a range of approximately 100 miles between charges, according to UPS.

Following test deployments, UPS and Workhorse will fine-tune the cab-forward design to deploy a larger fleet in 2019 and beyond. 

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UPS and Workhorse to Collaborate on Electric Delivery Vehicles

Heavy Duty Trucking (HDT)  /  February 22, 2018

UPS has announced plans to deploy 50 plug-in electric delivery trucks designed from the ground up as part of a collaboration with Workhorse Group.

The two companies aim to produce electric delivery trucks that are comparable in acquisition cost to conventionally fueled trucks without any subsidies.

The trucks are expected to have a range of around 100 miles per charge and provide a nearly 400% fuel efficiency improvement over conventional trucks.

The Class 5 zero-emission trucks will feature a cab-forward design to optimize the driver compartment and cargo area, increase efficiency, and reduce vehicle weight.

“Electric vehicle technology is rapidly improving with battery, charging and smart grid advances that allow us to specify our delivery vehicles to eliminate emissions, noise and dependence on diesel and gasoline,” said Carlton Rose, president, global fleet maintenance and engineering for UPS. “With our scale and real-world duty cycles, these new electric trucks will be a quantum leap forward for the purpose-built UPS delivery fleet. The all electric trucks will deliver by day and re-charge overnight.”

The trucks will join UPS’s Rolling Lab, the company’s fleet of more than 9,000 alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles.

UPS will test the vehicles primarily on urban routes across the country, including in Atlanta, Dallas, and Los Angeles. Following real-world test deployments, UPS and Workhorse will fine-tune the design in time to deploy a larger fleet in 2019.

Since most of the maintenance costs of a vehicle are associated with the engine and related components, UPS expects the operating cost of the new plug-in electric vehicle to be less than a similarly equipped diesel or gasoline vehicle. UPS’s goal is to make the new electric vehicles a standard selection, where appropriate, in its fleet of the future.

UPS has more than 300 electric vehicles deployed in Europe and the U.S., and nearly 700 hybrid electric vehicles. The company recently ordered 125 new fully electric Semi tractors to be built by Tesla in 2019, the largest pre-order to date. Last year, UPS also announced it will become the first commercial customer in the U.S. to start using three medium-duty electric trucks from Daimler Trucks' Fuso brand, called the eCanter.

UPS has an internal goal that one out of every four new vehicles purchased by 2020 will be an alternative fuel or advanced technology vehicle. The company has also pledged to obtain 25% of the electricity it consumes from renewable energy sources by 2025 and replace 40% of all ground fuel with sources other than conventional gasoline and diesel.

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Breaking the electric cost barrier

Trailer-Body Builders  /  March 1, 2018

UPS has commissioned Workhorse to build it electric delivery trucks that cost about the same as diesels.

While they promise substantially lower operational and maintenance costs over time, all-electric trucks so far haven't been able to beat their diesel or gasoline counterparts in their initial price tag. Global parcel delivery giant UPS, long an investor in energy sustainability and alternative fuel initiatives, is looking to change things by overcoming that "key barrier to large-scale fleet adoption."

The company has engaged Workhorse Group to build it an all-electric Class 5 delivery van that will be "comparable in acquisition cost" to an equivalent conventional fuel van — and that's apples-to-apples, with no special subsidies included for the electric.

If Workhorse pulls it off, it would make the argument against electric trucks a more difficult one for fleets whose duty-cycle needs match up. Notably, another Class 5 battery-electric delivery van unveiled recently that garnered some attention, the Chanje V8070, has promised big cost advantages in the long run for fleet use but is expected to carry an initial premium vs. diesel- or gasoline-powered vans.

UPS also announced last fall that it's working with Unique Electric Solutions, LLC to develop an electric conversion kit initially for its vans operating in lower Manhattan, New York City. That effort is being supported by $500,000 grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and will utilize Unique Electric's switched reluctance motor, or SRM, technology. Compared with most electric motors, which use permanent magnets, SRMs have a simpler design with no permanent magnets, lowering acquisition and long-term operating costs.

But in this latest endeavor, UPS said it will deploy 50 of the planned new plug-in electric trucks from Workhorse. The vehicles will offer a nearly 400% fuel efficiency improvement over conventional fuel vehicles, according to Workhorse, although the accounting for that claim is yet to be seen; it would need to compare per-mile costs for fuel vs. those of electricity for charging. Workhorse also said the electric delivery vans will have about a 100-mi. range between charges and will have a cab-forward design to optimize driver compartment and cargo area and reduce weight.

"Our goal is to make it easy for UPS and others to go electric by removing prior roadblocks to large-scale acceptance such as cost," Steve Burns, Workhorse's CEO, said in a statement. UPS noted that it plans to put the 50 electric delivery vans to use in urban areas including Atlanta, Dallas and Los Angeles.

"The all-electric trucks will deliver by day and re-charge overnight," said Carlton Rose, president of global fleet maintenance and engineering at UPS. "We are uniquely positioned to work with our partners, communities and customers to transform freight operation."

After Workhorse and UPS have designed the electric van "from the ground up" and produced prototypes, the companies will tweak the design for larger-scale production. UPS said it intends to make these new electric trucks "a standard selection" for its fleet, noting that it operates some 35,000 diesel or gasoline trucks "in routes with duty cycles or daily miles traveled similar to the new electric vehicles," meaning those could be replaced out with all-electric vehicles.

It's not the only all-electric trucks UPS is pursuing. The company has pre-ordered 125 of Tesla's planned electric semi-trucks and has purchased three of Mitsubishi-Fuso's eCanter medium-duty electric trucks as well to put to use in its fleet. UPS already operates more than 300 electric vehicles in use in the United States and Europe and has said that by 2020, it wants one out of every four vehicles it purchases to be either alternative fuel or advanced technology like the planned all-electric delivery vans from Workhorse.

In its "Rolling Lab" — a growing fleet of more than 9,000 alternative fuel and advanced tech vehicles — UPS has been using and testing Workhorse's hybrid-electric E-GEN trucks for some time. Those run on battery power and feature a small gasoline "Range Extender" engine that kicks in and acts as a generator to provide power when the batteries are depleted, and can also use Workhorse's Horsefly drone to deliver packages.