UPS joins US advocacy effort for electric vehicles

UPS is to work more closely with the electric vehicle industry to support the commercialisation of electric drive transportation technologies. The company has joined the industry’s Electric Drive Transportation Association, a move it said would help it to work with policy experts to tackle transportation issues, particularly in the United States.

UPS has been investing in electric and hybrid-electric vehicles for trial around the globe recently, and in the last six months as taken on 130 electric hybrid vehicles in the United States, 14 electric vehicles in the UK, and last week announced plans for three hybrid-electric trucks to take to the streets of Hong Kong.

The company’s vice president of automotive engineering, Mike Hance, said investing in the alternative energy vehicles meant UPS would be cutting costs and creating jobs, as well as benefiting the environment and improving the security of energy supplies.

“It’s not the wave of the future, it’s what the present demands and what makes good business sense,” Hance said. “Our partnership with EDTA is yet another step in working together with industry and policy experts to explore every option and to solve one of the nation’s biggest transportation problems.”

Washington DC-based trade association EDTA represents companies involved in battery, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell electric drive technologies and infrastructure within the US.

Founded in 1989, the association is dedicated to advancing electric drive as a core technology in sustainable transport through public policy advocacy and educational work.

“We are very pleased to welcome UPS, a leader in alternative fleets, as an EDTA member,” said EDTA President Brian Wynne. “In joining EDTA, UPS will be working with others at the forefront of the industry to lead the charge for electric drive infleets and across the transportation sector.”

Earlier this month, President Obama, US energy secretary Steven Chu and transportation secretary Ray LaHood toured the UPS alternative vehicle fleet just outside Washington in Landover, Maryland.

UPS chief sustainability officer Scott Wicker highlighted plug-in all-electric and compressed natural gas trucks as the company signed up to the White House alternative fuels initiative, the Clean Fleet Partnership. The initiative aims to cut the 4bn gallons of fuel used each year by America’s 3m commercial fleet vehicles.