Click image for photo gallery of the UPS EV van

Last weekend, reader Andrew Grin accompanied a friend on one of the NY-area Tesla Roadster test drives that were being held (his friend has a Roadster reserved). Following the experience with the EV sports car, Andrew and his buddies spotted a somewhat peculiar UPS truck parked across the street from the garage where the Tesla was dropped off. The big delivery truck had "Zero Emission Electric Vehicle" emblazoned on its side panels. A walk to the front also showed a blank spot where the radiator grille would normally reside. They quizzed the truck's driver, who told them that it's one of two of its kind in New York City, and that it has a 15-mile range. The photos below come courtesy of Andrew, who happened to have his camera on hand to capture the Tesla drive. Turns out, he caught another interesting EV with it as well. Thanks, Andrew!


[Source & Photos: Andrew Grin]

UPS, a company which already has twenty-five hybrid diesel electric commercial vehicles in operation, is expanding its fleet of green vehicles by ordering an additional two-hundred hybrid electric vehicles and three-hundred compressed natural gas vehicles from Daimler's Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation (FCCC). This order will more than double Daimler's active fleet of commercial hybrids, as the German company currently has over one-hundred-sixty in service. We wonder if the two-million miles of reliable service that FedEx was able to achieve from its hybrid trucks was enough to persuade UPS into making this large order. The FCCC truck is powered by a diesel engine along with an electric motor. While the forty percent improvement in fuel mileage from this setup likely makes the most important difference to UPS, we can also thank the vehicles for their ninety percent reduction in emissions. Therefore, UPS estimates a savings of 176,000 gallons of fuel annually along with 1.786 tons of CO₂ emissions from its two-hundred new hybrid trucks. Apparently, brown can also be green.

Many modern vehicles already use hydraulic power for certain functions, namely power steering and brakes. Companies such as UPS, though, see potential in using hydraulic systems as part of a hybrid drivetrain. While nobody is expecting a hybrid hydraulic system to be able to store enough energy to achieve miles-upon-miles of driving distance, the frequent stopping and restarting of some vehicles - delivery trucks, to name just one obvious example - make them excellent candidates for possible hydraulic technology.

Pump on over to Number 7.

Zap's CEO Steve Schneider did a very interesting audio interview with CEONEWS.Tv recently where he talked about the Zap-X, the Zap-Coke deal and the future of the company. On Zap-X, Schneider says Chinese automaker Youngman owns 51 percent stake in the Detroit Electric joint venture, while Zap owns 49 percent in the company. Schneider explains Detroit Electric will sell higher speed electric vehicles while Zap continues to sell the lower speed vehicles. Schneider says the Youngman relationship is unique because, according to his understanding, there are only a handful of licenses given to Chinese companies to make cars inexpensively (Zap can sell buses for half the price, for example). On the release of the Zap-X, Schneider says it's a 36-month project but did not say when it started (it's been at least 14 months). Schneider did say the Alias is a 18-month project and they are six months into it. Remember that Zap has been talking about the Alias since June 2007, which was eight months ago.

On the recent deal with Coke (Coca-Cola is using thirty of Zap's compact trucks in Montevideo, Uruguay) Schneider says it was spawned from the UPS deal. Schneider explains the UPS deal came from one brave UPS rep that "risked his career" to use Zap trucks and a tractor trailers hub model. The hub model showed bottom line savings for the company and what do you think happened to that UPS rep? He was promoted to a much "larger capacity" position at the San Fran UPS branch! "Quite a few" companies (Schneider won't give out names) have contacted Zap, looking to repeat the model, since that brave UPS rep started the ball rolling.

Schneider also talked about a trip to Dubai and said the Middle East is more interested in electric cars than you might expect. Schneider was asked about the Daimler lawsuit and while he could did not say much, he did say Zap's lawyers tell him it should be settled in three months. Things are changing like the climate Schneider jokes and "the market is finally catching up (after 14 years) to what ZAP has been preaching." Schneider expects Zap to have 100 dealers by the end of this year, up from 56 at a recent meeting. AutoblogGreen is not a stock investing website but we have to admit we are really impressed by this interview and Zap's CEO Steve Schneider responses. He talks a good game, at least.


[Source: CEONEWS.Tv]

Since the first moment I laid eyes on it, I've thought the Modec electric truck was a thing of beauty. A little more aerodynamic than its freight hauling frères and a whole lot more quiet. Need I mention the lack of diesel smoke? I thought not. After reading all the specs and mulling it over for about 10 seconds it occurred to me that this vehicle would look great in UPS brown. Sure enough, it does.

According to BigLorryBlog, the company has begun putting the Modec (they really do need a catchy model name) through its paces within the London Low Emission Zone. So what does UPS think about this big brown truck? "The quiet, carbon-neutral vehicle is the first of its kind to effectively harness the power of modern, high energy batteries to meet the medium range, high performance requirements of hard working, urban delivery vehicles." I think, as with Tesco, they like it, they like it!

[Source: BigLorryBlog via TNN via Green Car Congress]

According to its own website, UPS operates some 94,542 ground vehicles worldwide. The company's fleet strategy is to be on the forefront of developing next-gen delivery vehicles that leverage alternative fuel technology and cut back on consumption and emissions. Recent examples of the company's foray into alt-tech include its trials of hydraulic hybrid and hybrid-electric brown delivery trucks.

So, how is the company doing in this regard? Eh, so-so. According to its own data, UPS used a bit more fuel in 2006 than it did the prior year. Considering its huge vehicle fleet, miles driven and packages delivered, though, the difference seems small. Still, it wasn't an improvement by any measure.

How about emissions? The company's stated goal is to "decrease total CO2 emissions produced by our operations" as new, fuel-efficient technologies become available. In the short term, the focus is on reducing emissions per package delivered. In this area, UPS again showed no improvement from 2005 to 2006. Instead, it states that CO2 emissions increased by 6.6% as a result of growth in both ground and air delivery volume.

Through it all, however, it really does appear that UPS is genuinely trying to improve. It only makes sense that it would want to reduce the amount of fuel it's using, because that saves money. Over time, by burning less fuel and replacing its fleet with newer vehicles sporting improved emissions equipment, the company's fleet CO2 output should improve as well. We'll just have to keep our eyes on UPS' progress and see if it meets its goals for this year. What can brown do for us?

[Source: UPS]

Click image for small photo gallery of the new UPS HEV truck

What can brown do for you? It can be more environmentally responsible when its trucks roll up to your doorstep to deliver that Rockford Files Season 2 box set you've been anxiously awaiting. The package delivery company has just added 50 brand-new HEV delivery trucks to its fleet. Coming in two sizes from either Workhorse Custom Chassis or Freightliner, the new trucks will look just like the other big brown vans, but graphics on the bodywork will clearly identify them as being hybrid electric vehicles.

The hybrid system comes from Eaton, and it combines a downsized clean diesel engine, a Lithium Ion battery pack and an electric motor/generator to increase the new trucks fuel economy by a whopping 44 percent over a traditional diesel-powered van. UPS also states that the 50 new trucks could help eliminate 457 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the course of the year. If you're in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston or Phoenix, you have a shot at seeing one of the vans, as that's where they've been put into service. UPS is not shy about testing alternative-fuel vehicles in its fleet. Last year the company made headlines when it put a hydraulic hybrid delivery truck into service.

[Source: UPS]

Package delivery companies like UPS have taken in hit in the last couple of years as a result of rising fuel costs. Now the brown trucks of UPS are going to be getting their routes optimized to help save money. UPS delivers over 14.5 million packages a day and the trucks tend to have routes that are rarely the same. The company will be using package flow technologies to optimize the loading of packages so drivers can get them out in order, more quickly, reducing the idle time. They will also set up the daily routes, to favor right hand turns where possible, again to reduce running time. The less time trucks spend sitting in left turn lanes, the less fuel they burn. UPS is projecting savings of $600 million a year from the changes. You can listen to an interview with UPS CIO Dave Barnes at ZDNET at the Read link.

[Source: ZDNet via Digg]