Electric trucks to bolster commercial fleet

“For more than a century, UPS has led the industry in testing and implementing new technologies for more efficient fleet operations. We look forward to expanding further our commitment to fleet excellence with Tesla,” said Juan Perez, Chief Information and Engineering Officer. “These groundbreaking electric tractors are poised to usher in a new era in improved safety, reduced environmental impact and reduced cost of ownership.”

UPS has provided Tesla real world UPS trucking lane information as part of the company’s evaluation of the vehicle’s expected performance for the UPS duty cycle. UPS frequently partners with suppliers of emerging vehicle technologies to help them develop solutions that prove ready for stringent UPS use cases.

Tesla’s claims for its Semi tractor range includes a single charge range of up to 500 miles, enhanced on-road safety and significantly reduced long term cost of ownership. Safety features include automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, automated lane guidance, and brake-by-wire and steer-by-wire with redundancy. Tesla expects to begin production of the vehicles in 2019 and UPS will be among the first companies to put the vehicles into use.

UPS’s preorder of the Tesla vehicles runs parallel with the company’s overall commitment to reduce its absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from global ground operations by 12% by 2025.

UPS has established a goal for 25% of the electricity it consumes to come from renewable energy sources by 2025. In addition, by 2020 UPS plans that one in four new vehicles purchased annually will be an alternative fuel or advanced technology vehicle, up from 16% in 2016. The company also set a new goal that by 2025, 40% of all ground fuel will be from sources other than conventional gasoline and diesel, an increase from 19.6% in 2016.

The company operates one of the largest private alternative fuel and advanced technology fleets in the US, and more than 8,500 vehicles throughout the world. This includes all-electric, hybrid electric, hydraulic hybrid, ethanol, compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied natural gas (LNG), propane and renewable natural gas (RNG)/biomethane.