The first Ryder electric vans have now hit the streets, providing a green solution for customers who need to rent a vehicle with a large cargo capacity.
Ryder will welcome 200 electric vans into its fleet this year, with their total reaching 4,000 by 2025, the company said in a press release.
The Zevo 600 vans from BrightDrop, which is part of General Motors, provide up to 250 miles of range on a single charge and produce zero tailpipe pollution.
Ryder Gets Its First Brightdrop Electric Vans, & They Look Neat!https://t.co/mOgyMeBYBf
— CleanTechnica (@cleantechnica) September 22, 2023
Ryder noted they can carry a payload of between 1,460 and 2,450 pounds and have a capacity of 615 cubic feet. Customers in Santa Fe Springs and Hayward in California, Saginaw in Texas, and Long Island City in New York can now take advantage of Ryder's latest commercial vehicle offering.
"Working with companies such as BrightDrop keeps Ryder at the forefront of identifying and testing advanced and emerging vehicle technology, and we're excited to incorporate these new EVs into our fleet," Ryder president of fleet management solutions Tom Havens said in a statement.
Ryder's commitment to move away from dirty-fuel-powered vehicles has already been demonstrated, with Ford E-Transits and Lonestar EVs also among its fleet. It has also made an order for Tesla Semi trucks.
According to 2021 data from the Environmental Protection Agency, the commercial vehicle sector is responsible for 7% of transportation pollution in the United States. Light-duty vehicles account for 58% of the share among vehicle types, while 23% is produced by medium- and heavy-duty trucks.
Alongside the new electric vans, Ryder has developed the RyderElectric+ system, which will help customers navigate the move to EVs with ease.
"As demand and adoption of commercial EVs continues to accelerate across the transportation and logistics industries, this latest offering provides Ryder customers with an end-to-end solution for zero-emission commercial fleet management, deployment, fueling, and maintenance," said Carlo Rodriguez, group director for advanced vehicle technology at Ryder.
Ryder isn't the only company to have adopted the zero-pollution vans, with FedEx being one of BrightDrop's largest customers. The delivery company's Canada operation has so far taken on 50 Zevo 600 vans, with 2,500 more BrightDrop models set to be welcomed "in the coming years," FedEx said in a statement.
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