DHL to produce its own electric vans; Volkswagen CEO “annoyed beyond measure”

DHL is not only pushing for the use of electric vehicles in its own fleet, but plans to sell them to other companies too, as part of its continuing environmental initiatives.

The German courier company created its first 50 electric delivery vans in 2013, dubbing them “StreetScooters”. It wanted to replace the conventional Volkswagen delivery vans it had been using with a cleaner, greener option.

This followed DHL Global Forwarding joining the Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay Transport Partnership in 2011, which aimed to improve operating efficiency in order to reduce fuel usage and carbon footprint.

Now DHL also wants to sell its StreetScooters, competing directly against other automakers such as Volkswagen.

The CEO of Volkswagen is reportedly not too happy about it. Matthias Mueller has said that he is “annoyed beyond measure” at DHL’s decision, wanting to know why Deutsche Post, DHL’s parent company, did not approach the VW Commercial vehicles division “about doing something similar”.

But DHL says that its decision was as a result of disinterest from automakers, who refused DHL’s requests for a limited number of electric vehicles.

DHL now has about 1,000 electric vehicles on the road and hopes to produce around 5,000 a year.

(Source: Auto Blog, Reuters)