French mailmen have a new vehicle. La Poste, the French postal service, has ordered 500 electric delivery microcars for this year and 10,000 within the next five years. Great move that we applaud, although the new squad will be a tiny portion of the gigantic fleet of fossil-fuel vehicle. By far to private sector companies, La Poste has around 60.000 vehicles, 25 airplanes and 3 high-speed trains.
Nevertheless, the electric vehicle will bring substantial energy saving. According to La Poste CEO Jean-Paul Bailly interviewed by the BBC, it would be “six times cheaper to run an electric vehicle than a diesel vehicle.” Bailly also adds the public utility service will cut down by 5% its emission of greenhouse gas.
For now, the selected cars are the Cleanova and a GEM E-series model. The former one is manufactured by SVE (Société de Véhicules Electriques), a joint-venture between Dassault and Heuliez, and reuses the chassis of the Renault Kangoo. The later one is brought by Global Electric Motorcars (GEM) owned by Daimler-Chrysler, in picture.
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