The first shipment of New Zealand Post’s 500 new electric delivery vehicles has landed in Auckland for a nationwide rollout that starts later this year.
The first round of electric vehicles to be used to deliver New Zealand post have been delivered from Norwegian manufacturers Paxster AS. 50 vehicles have arrived and will be used for parcel and mail delivery starting on Auckland’s North Shore.
“Within the next two years we plan to have 500 Paxsters in operation, which we believe will be the largest fleet of road legal, fully electric vehicles in New Zealand,” says Acting Chief Operating Officer, Mark Stewart.
“The vehicles, in combination with a range of new parcel services that we’ll be talking more about soon, will improve parcel delivery for customers,” says Mark Stewart.
The new vehicles will also reduce vehicle impact of the environment, says Stewart.
The New Zealand Post Group already has 50 fully electric vehicles in its delivery operation and 118 hybrid cars in the Kiwibank fleet, and Mr Stewart says the addition of the Paxsters will have a big impact.
“Early calculations suggest New Zealand Post will make very good reductions in fuel costs and greenhouse gas emissions by using these electric vehicles.”
The Paxsters received the 2013 Award for Design Excellence from the Norwegian Design Council, and will be used for combined parcel and mail deliveries in residential areas of New Zealand’s larger towns and cities.
A successful pilot has already been held in New Plymouth.
For more, see
nzpost.co.nz
