Ford and DHL collaborating on battery-electric van

Ford of Germany and Deutsche Post DHL Group subsidiary StreetScooter entering a partnership for the manufacturing of battery-electric delivery vehicles.

Deutsche Post designed and produced the emission-free StreetScooter van, and now both partners are working on a larger vehicle using a Ford Transit as the donor chassis.

The Electric Transit delivery vehicle will be equipped with a battery-electric drivetrain and fitted with a body based on Deutsche Post and DHL specifications.

The partners are expecting production to commence in July 2017.

Before the end of 2018 at least 2,500 vehicles will support the urban delivery traffic of Deutsche Post DHL Group. With this volume, the joint project will become the largest manufacturer of battery-electric medium-duty delivery vehicles in Europe.

Both Deutsche Post DHL Group and Ford share the same objective of building future mobility by reducing emissions and creating new traffic solutions. This partnership is an important and tangible step towards achieving these goals.

“The collaboration between the two partners is another important boost for electro-mobility in Germany”, says Deutsche Post board member Jürgen Gerdes.

“It will relieve the inner cities and increase the 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 Ford Motor Company Europe, Middle East and Africa president Steven Armstrong.

“As the leader in commercial vehicles in Europa, 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,” he says.

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

Throughout Germany, Deutsche Post is using more than 2500 StreetScooter vehicles.

More and more prospective buyers are signalling their interest or have already received StreetScooters to convert their fleet to zero-emission operation.