Commercial leasing company Volt Mobility boasts clients that include UPS, DHL, and FedEx. And now, they’ll be able to boast about having one of the largest electric vehicle fleets in the world – because they just ordered 3,000 electric trucks from Mullen.
Volt Mobility placed a $210 million order for 3,000 class 1 and class 3 electric cargo vans to be delivered over the next sixteen months. From there, Volt will lease the vehicles to its corporate customer base throughout the Gulf Cooperation Council (“GCC”) region, which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“Volt is reshaping the way people and businesses move across the UAE and GCC,” said David Michery, CEO and chairman of Mullen Automotive. “This landmark agreement provides Mullen with exposure to leading global transportation companies and the opportunity for utilizing Mullen EVs across the UAE and other areas of the Middle East.”
Mullen says Volt Mobility’s vehicles will be assembled at the company’s Tunica, Mississippi-based Commercial Vehicle Facility, an ex-GM plant which is capable of producing 20,000 class 1 and 6,000 class 3 vehicles annually with two production shifts.
Top comment by Jilles van Gurp
Similarly, you wouldn’t expect a middle eastern logistics fleet to choose electric over diesel … I wouldn’t, anyway.
A lot of people with money in oil are rational enough to see that there's going to be a time when people stop burning it. Divestment away from fossil fuel has been going on for quite some time. Also in the middle east.
Anyway, there's one thing that is very abundant in the middle east: solar power. They get plenty of sun light throughout the year and there's lots of waste land where you can just plonk down lots of solar panels. So, it makes total sense for rich people over there to diversify their portfolios and invest in some local businesses that are about electrifying local logistics.
Besides, it's not like they are making lots of money from the local fuel market as most of it is untaxed. That's to keep the locals happy. I think the liter price for diesel in the UAE is around 80 cents per liter currently. Which is on the high side for the region. Places like Egypt heavily subsidize their fuel and abandoning the subsidies is deeply unpopular. It's actually becoming a problem for them because fuel isn't actually that cheap anymore and Egypt has to import a lot of it. Egypt is not the only country with fuel subsidies in the region. It's a popular strategy to keep the population happy enough in what amounts to mostly dictatorial regimes.
Electrification makes a lot of sense given all that.
Mullen will receive an initial $3 million deposit within 60 days, with additional payments coming due as the vehicles are delivered to Volt.
Electrek’s Take
Against all odds, Mullen is still alive. And, seemingly, more alive than ever – constantly defying the naysayers who expect its next press release to send it the way of the Tasmanian tiger, the dodo, and the first, second, and fourth incarnations of Fisker. Similarly, you wouldn’t expect a middle eastern logistics fleet to choose electric over diesel … I wouldn’t, anyway. As such, I should probably let one of the subjects of this article close it out.
“At Volt, we don’t just follow trends; we set them,” said Sophia Nau, managing director and CFO for Volt Mobility. “Our mission is clear: lead the transformation to sustainable, efficient and cutting-edge transportation.”
SOURCE | IMAGES: Volt Mobility, via Mullen USA.
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