Japan Looking To Go Green With Electric Postal Cars

Japan's postal service has announced that it is considering plans to switch its entire fleet of around 21,000 short-distance delivery vehicles to zero-emission EVs starting this business year. The company has also approached Japanese companies to push for the development of electric-powered motorbikes.

A spokesman at Japan Post Service Co, the mail delivery unit of Japan Post Corp, said, “We’re discussing the feasibility with automakers and battery makers to that end.” Depending on how fast the cars and the necessary recharging infrastructure can be set up, the company may use some gasoline-electric hybrids in the interim. It’s possible that the delivery vehicles will be a variation of the Mitsubishi i-MiEV.

This seems likely given that shares in Mitsubishi soared immediately following the announcement. Any discussion of the feasibility of the project is likely to focus on the high cost of converting to an all-electric fleet. However, with gasoline prices soaring, cost will be less of an issue in the long-term. The project would also be big enough to make a sizeable dent in Japan’s carbon emissions and might just tip the scales in favor of the government-backed roll out of a nation-wide recharging infrastructure. This will also be encouraging news for carmakers looking to invest in EVs, with such a large ‘guaranteed’ initial demand likely to ease worries about the potential market.

Via Reuters and Business Week

Email this

Comments (6) Add Comment

Subscribe to this comment's feed

...
written by Dan, June 09, 2008

Smart move. I hope the US postal service can follow suit. They're raising prices every 2 months anyway.

Nice paint.
written by Papa Hotel, June 09, 2008

The iMiEV sounds like a great car, so it's nice to finally see it without that ugly red/white paint job and mismatching doors. Just sayin'.

Great
written by micki, June 18, 2008

This is very exciting. The price of course needs to be reasonable and I am concerned about issues with running out of battery in the middle of the road, but this looks like a serious attempt to allow for alternative fuel car.
Next if this is successful many, if not all, nations will struggle with generation of electricity. Especially electricity generated from fossil fuels. I think there will be a lot of protesting, but I see it likely that nuclear power is going to make a comeback in a big way.

...
written by Fsh, August 08, 2008

Dan,
I totally agree with you!!
My brother works for the U.S. Post Office & I have been telling him for 2 years the their fleet is a PERFECT one for electrics. Alot of braking & a reasonably short drive. Talk about getting out of the red & into the black quickly!!!!!!

games
written by Ø§Ù„Ø¹Ø§Ø¨, August 30, 2009

...
written by retin a, October 01, 2009

This will also be encouraging news for carmakers looking to invest in EVs, with such a large â€˜guaranteedâ€™ initial demand likely to ease worries about the potential market.

Write comment

< Prev		Next >

JUN 09

Japan Looking To Go Green With Electric Postal Cars

Are you an EcoGeek?

The Most Popular Articles

Blogroll

Categories