UPS is buying a fleet of 1,000 electric vans from Workhorse

Parcel delivery companies are all starting to look at electric vehicles to reduce their operating costs and their impact on air pollution.

UPS is arguably leading the way on that front as it orders a fleet of 1,000 electric vans from Workhorse as it latest electrification effort.

I say latest electrification effort because UPS has many of them.

We reported on them deploying a small fleet of new neat-looking custom-built all-electric delivery trucks in London last month.

The delivery giant is also working on several other electrification efforts. They are converting ‘up to 1,500 delivery trucks’ to battery-electric in New York, they’ve already bought some of Daimler’s new electric trucks, and they’ve ordered 125 Tesla Semi trucks.

Finally, they also placed an order for a fleet of 50 all-electric delivery trucks made by Workhorse.

This week, the company confirmed “a new binding agreement with UPS to buy 950 N-GEN plug-in electric delivery vehicles.”

The order adds to the previous 50 units for a total of 1,000 electric delivery vans from Workhorse.

The Ohio-based truck maker Workhorse is probably better known within the EV community for its plug-in electric W-15 pickup truck, but it is also starting to put its new electric van N-Gen on the road.

Workhorse says that the new N-Gen electric van has a range of 100 miles (160 km) on a single charge, which should be enough for most delivery routes, and they can add a 75-mile (120 km) gas range extender as an option.

Right now, it’s geared toward urban deliveries, but they are also planning additional configurations for telecom service/municipal use and bigger versions with 700-cubic-foot and 1,000-cubic-foot models. Those are expected to enter production in late 2018.

By the end of the year, Workhorse says that it plans to put 2,000 all-electric vans on the road.

It now sounds like many of them will have the colors of UPS – as pictured above.