FedEx is undertaking a two-month trial of a 100% electric van made by Nissan. The van is the NV200 and the trial will be entirely within London. This is a very important test for Nissan and it will demonstrate whether or not the van is suitable for the special conditions of London traffic.
London is not alone in this trail; a total of 43 similar vans will be tried out by FedEx in a number of cities all over the world. These include Chicago, Memphis, Paris, Los Angeles and New York.
A similar trial has already been completed by the Japanese Postal Service in Japan with the NV200 EV taking on the roll of routine collections and deliveries.
There is also a parallel trial taking place in new York in which the Yellow Cab taxi service will be trialling a number of NV200 vehicles as cabs and if it is successful then they will be introduces as alternatives to the traditional vehicles in 2017.
Essentially the NV200 is very similar to the Leaf in that it uses an almost identical power train and batteries, though it is unlikely to match the leaf for range between charges. The van also uses regenerative braking so some of the power that would otherwise be dissipated as heat is used to continually top up the batteries. The range is likely to be 60 to 70 miles, though the batteries can be charged up to 80% of their full capacity in just thirty minutes.