In 2021 the Royal Mail had 300 electric vans and during 2022 has added a further 3000 mix of medium sized and smaller e-vans. These are funded by the Ofgem - Optimum Prime Project which in turn is funded by our taxes. It intends to replace all its 41,500 vans by 2030, that is in 8 years, to achieve Net Zero emissions.

The Dorchester Delivery Office now have a mix of Peugeot e-Expert, Mercedes Benz e-Vito, and Peugeot e-Partner vans. The Mercedes vans with limited range will likely be replaced with e-Experts.

These vans replace the Fiat Doblo petrol van with a range of 300 miles and was £5,000 to £8,000 cheaper than the e-vans. Doing 100 miles a day for 300 days a year (excluding Sundays) and achieving 33 miles to the gallon costs £7,200 a year, and refuelling takes 15 minutes. Road tax is £180 per year and servicing probably £600 a year.

The running cost is £7.980 per annum.

The Mercedes e-Vito can only do 80 miles maximum and less when the heater is used. Realistically the range is limited to a round trip of 60 miles. With this daily range the battery with a life of 100,000 miles will be 5 ½ years and cost about £12,000 to replace. This equates to £2,200 a year.

Recharging the 50kWh battery takes 8 hours and costs 70p/kWh at the Royal Mail business electric rate. For 300 days this is £10,500 a year. Servicing is assumed to be £600 a year.

The running cost is £13,300 per annum.

The Peugeot e-Expert doing 100 miles a day and a battery with a 100,000-mile lifespan will need to be replaced every 3 years at a cost of in excess of £15,000, that is £5,000 a year. Recharging the 75kWh battery takes 13 hours and for 300 days this is £15,750 a year. Servicing is assumed to be £600 a year.

The running cost is £21,350 per annum.

The Peugeot e-Partner van can do up to 150 miles a day on a 50kWh battery. Doing 100 miles a day, recharging the battery will take 8 hours and for 300 days this is £10,500 a year.

The battery life of 100,000 miles will need replacing in 3 years at a cost of £12,000, that is £4,000 a year. Servicing is assumed to be £600 a year.

The running cost is £20,500 per annum.

The running cost of having all Fiat Doblo’s would be £7,980 x 41,500 = £331.2m a year.

With an equal mix of e-Expert & e-Partner at say £21,000 x 41,500 = £871.5m a year.

That will increase the present company loss of £1m a day to £2.8m a day.

Royal Mail will reach zero emissions by 2030 because it will go bankrupt.

Antony Nailer

UK Independence Party - Energy & Transport Spokesman

Picture: Mtaylor848, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons