FedEx Is Getting 1,000 More Electric Delivery Vans

Our online shopping is about to get a little greener.

It's Black Friday. But how many people are actually heading to a store this year? And I'm not just talking about those who celebrate Buy Nothing Day.

Online shopping might not help Main Street or support walkable cities, but it's probably better than a bunch of out-of-town Big Box stores which both use up power to keep the buildings running and require that we all drive out to them. However, some of those efficiencies are cancelled out by all those diesel trucks and vans that now circle round and around our neighborhoods.

Thankfully, a growing number of those delivery vehicles are soon likely to be electric.

From DHL's electric vans which actually filter brake and tire dust to UPS' custom-build electric delivery vans, delivery firms appear to be working hard to get out in front of efforts to clean up city air and reduce transportation pollution.

Now Reuters reports that FedEx—which has already invested heavily in electric and hybrid vehicles—is adding another 1,000 electric delivery vans to its fleet. The vans—manufactured by Chanje and mostly owned and rented to Fedex by Ryder—will be deployed in California, and have a range of about 150 miles. They can carry up to 6,000 pounds of cargo.

Of course, it goes without saying that cargo bike delivery—maybe from your local high street store—is the real holy grail of home delivery commerce. But I suspect online shopping from Big Dot Com is here to stay. An increasingly electrified delivery fleet will help to make sure that this particular model is considerably greener than the sprawl-inducing Big Box stores of old.