One of FedEx’s new EV600 vans. Last year, EVs made up around 2% of FedEx’s fleet / FedEx Corp. FedEx Corp. is inching toward its goal of d...
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| One of FedEx’s new EV600 vans. Last year, EVs made up around 2% of FedEx’s fleet / FedEx Corp. |
The first EV600 vans, which can go as far as 250 miles on a full charge, will be delivering packages in Los Angeles in 2022 as BrightDrop provides more vehicles, FedEx said. California, which has a target to phase out new gas-burning cars by 2035, has emerged as a hot spot for electric vehicles.
Headquartered in Memphis, Tenn., FedEx aims to have an all-electric pickup and delivery fleet by 2040. Including other vehicles, such as airport forklift trucks, FedEx’s fleet of more than 200,000 vehicles had more than 3,000 EVs last year, according to disclosures to CDP, an environmental data group.
“This is a marathon, not a sprint,” FedEx’s Chief Sustainability Officer Mitch Jackson said. And to get more EVs on the road, FedEx will need to install chargers and ensure the electricity grid can handle the company’s needs, he added.
Terms of the deal with BrightDrop weren’t disclosed: The deliveries mark a milestone for GM: They are the first vehicles to use its new battery technology, called Ultium, which will go into dozens of models planned for coming years. The company also is delivering some of its Ultium-based GMC Hummer pickup trucks to dealerships on Friday.
GM President Mark Reuss said the technology allows for a more-efficient vehicle layout for delivery companies. “Having that dedicated [electric vehicle] platform gives us the flexibility to offer a package that the customer wants,” he said.
FedEx has set a target to make its operations carbon-neutral by 2040 by using renewable energy, carbon offsets and EVs, and in March earmarked an initial $2 billion to those ends. Delivery companies such as FedEx, United Parcel Service Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. are looking to EVs as they face pressure from big cities like Los Angeles to cut tailpipe emissions.
FedEx operates the world’s biggest cargo airline and says millions of more emissions come from burning jet fuel than from its vehicles. Electric aircraft for long-haul flights are a long way off, meaning EVs are one of the few ways FedEx can immediately cut its transport emissions.
According to the World Economic Forum, last-mile emissions have been growing because more people are buying things online and want their orders delivered faster, prompting companies to put more vans on the road. In urban areas like Los Angeles, delivery vehicles cause added congestion and emissions.
Unless companies and major cities take action, the WEF estimates that last-mile emissions will reach 25 million metric tons of carbon-dioxide equivalent a year in the world’s top 100 cities by 2030, up from 19 million in 2019.
In its most recent sustainability report, FedEx said that burning fuel for its vehicle fleet released more than 3.1 million metric tons of carbon-dioxide equivalent in its 2020 financial year ended in May, down from more than 3.3 million in fiscal 2018, a drop attributed to EVs and fuel-efficiency gains.