Japan Post announces plans to convert entire mail delivery fleet to EVs.
by greenz.jp, Tokyo, Japan on 06.10.08
Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved. Photo by naitokz
Japan Post announced on June 2nd that they intend to replace their entire fleet of 21,000 mail collection and delivery trucks with Electric Vehicles (EVs) over the next eight years. Despite the high price of EVs, this will apparently translate into savings of several billion yen when compared to the projected cost of continuing to use increasingly expensive gasoline. It doesn’t stop there.
A huge fleet of EVs obviously needs recharging, so Japan Post intends plans to install fast chargers in the parking lots of about 1000 post offices throughout the country, and here comes the clincher: they’re considering making those available to the public. Imagine, if you will, the effect this would have on the adoption of EV technology in Japan, a country that already leads in hybrid technology, possesses very limited fossil fuel reserves, and is the leading auto manufacturing nation.
While there are currently plenty of EVs on the market and major manufacturers such as Nissan, Mitsubishi and Fuji Heavy Industries have already announced plans to mass-produce full electric vehicles in the near future, no manufacturer is likely to be able to fill Japan Post’s order anytime soon, so needless to say they are still deliberating on whom to sign the contract with.
Brought to you by Chris Harrington of greenz.jp
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bravo~
Walk into the Japanese post office and buy "charging time" or "kWh"
This is a super great idea and provides the needed infrastructure to jump start Japan's EV market.
Now if they produce their electricity with offshore wind farms, they will have a very clean unpolluted Japan.
Now how will the USA compete with this new development?
This is an excellent development and part of a bigger trend in Japan.
Even more interesting is the emphasis on low technology solutions. Recently, I have seen more and more postmen delivering letters by bicycle. Not only that but many of the private delivery firms are also using bicycles to deliver large packages and so on! They also have a growing stock of hybrid and LPG powered vehicles.
I must agree that this is a great idea. I just hope, other countries would be able to follow. Given that the price of EVs is high, it will prove more cost-effective overtime, and it also helps protect the environment against emissions.
I think the US should do that too.
They led the way in solar panel manufacturing, let's hope this brings EV's closer to the markets as well... :)
Offshore wind. Or solar. Or nuclear. Japan currently gets 30% of pwer from nuclear, and plans to be at 37% by 2009 and 41% by 2014 and to keep it rising from there.
This is an excellent way for the government to help get EV's started. They are not directly providing subsidies or funding for research, but encouraging someone to invest in EV's.
This is wonderful news.
Now they just need to install turbines to power those stations without loading the existing network and it'll be superb.
I'm sure that the car manufacturers will really work hard to get the contract even if their current plants can't deliver it fully.
This will most probably help bring the EV vehicles cost down in the future for other buyers.