TNT to Swap 100 Diesel Trucks for Electric Models

Published May 18, 2008

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — TNT, a transportation and delivery company, will replace more than 100 diesel truck with all-electric trucks over the next year and a half.

The company will swap out trucks in the United Kingdom, China and Amsterdam, and also has a number of pilot programs to test other, cleaner trucks.

The zero emission, battery-powered Newton trucks are manufactured by Smith Electric Vehicles in the U.K. and designed to replace diesel trucks in urban areas. The trucks have a top speed of 50 miles per hour and have a range of 70-100 miles on a single charge. They're powered by four sodium nickel chloride 278v batteries and can be fully charged in six-eight hours.

"We are living in times of great change and the launch of the fleet represents a critical component in what we are striving for - to make TNT the first zero emissions express and mail company," said TNT CEO Peter Bakker.

The £7 million ($13.7 million) initiative is expected to reduce the company's carbon dioxide emissions by about 2.8 million pounds a year. TNT had previously ordered 50 of the trucks from Smith Electric. The latest 100 trucks will be split evenly between the U.K. and its other European operations. TNT runs about 45,000 trucks in Europe.

Before deciding to start replacing diesel trucks with Newtons, the company tested the trucks out for 18 months in London. TNT's operations in China, Australia and the Netherlands are testing out other electric and hybrid trucks. Last week the company started using two battery-powered delivery vans in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province in China. In April, TNT introduced 10 diesel-electric hybrids in Australia, and the company plans to try out other Smith Electric vans and trucks in the Netherlands.

Toxic batteries

Anonymous, June 17, 2009 - 14:30

Is the sodium nickel chloride battery toxic? I've heard some people say that it's a trade-off--clean energy for toxic waste products from the batteries. They're hard to dispose of and we're going to be dealing with a ton of them as more people convert to battery powered cars. Then there's the fact that the energy for charging them may not be clean either...

Next, an all-electric Ford F650

Barry Kellow (not verified), May 19, 2008 - 09:17

This is excellent news. It's good to see someone like Smith EV just getting on with making and selling electric vehicles, when so many people are issuing excuses as to why we can't have them yet. They have obviously identified a market in which the known limitations of battery powered vehicles are not a problem. Depot based fleets in which the trucks return to where they started and can recharge overnight - and where a distance of a hundred miles between charges is plenty.

TNT is obviously convinced that EVs make economic sense. Hardheaded fleet managers don't go buying 150 trucks just to impress environmentalists!

And Smith are apparently coming to America. Working in conjunction with Ford they are are about to open a factory on US soil producing this Smith Faraday model based on the Ford F650 http://i29.tinypic.com/307raqg.jpg

That particular vehicle doesn't feature on Smith's website http://www.smithelectricvehicles.com but the site is quite can eye-opener. Check out their customer case histories!

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TNT to Swap 100 Diesel Trucks for Electric Models

Toxic batteries

Next, an all-electric Ford F650

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