Canada Post unveiled its first fleet of battery-electric delivery vehicles in Nanaimo, B.C., on Thursday. The rollout of the 14 cargo vans is part of the company's commitment to electrify its national fleet of 14,000 vehicles by 2040.Canada Post unveiled its first electric delivery vehicles in Nanaimo, B.C., on Thursday, decked out in teal green. Canada Post unveiled its first fleet of battery-electric delivery vehicles in Nanaimo, B.C., on Thursday.
"Last year, the corporation set aside more than $1 billion to cut emissions and move forward on the electrification of its last-mile fleet," said Suromitra Sanatani, chair of Canada Post's board of directors. Sally Dam, Canada Post's director of urban delivery strategy, said Nanaimo was chosen as the test location for future electric fleets partly because of the clean energy B.C. offers through its hydroelectric network.Canada Post isn't the first organization on Vancouver Island to begin the transition. West Shore RCMP and transport company Coldstar Solutions Inc. introduced their own electric vehicles earlier this year.
"Like smaller communities, are they going to be able to ? ... Are they going to have enough power to do that?"Curran Crawford, director of the University of Victoria's Institute for Integrated Energy Systems, says the switch to electricity is just "one piece of the puzzle," but an important first step for the province.