Lightning eMotors, provider of purpose-built commercial electric vehicles for fleets, announced that Fluid Truck has ordered 40 additional zero-emission delivery trucks for its New York City fleet. XPO Logistics and NAL Group will use these vehicles in their support of IKEA Retail US last-mile delivery efforts.
Currently, the Fluid Truck network system uses 10 electric delivery box trucks from Lightning eMotors to serve Manhattan. Now, an additional 30 vehicles from Colorado-based Lightning eMotors will deploy over the next few months.
Further, third-party logistics partners NAL Group and XPO Logistics will deploy the new, all-electric vehicles. The companies rent the vehicles via the Fluid Truck rental platform. The platform allows businesses to easily rent and receive vehicles from nearby locations 24/7, 365 days a year.
Tim Reeser, CEO of Lightning eMotors, says XPO Logistics, NAL Group, and Fluid Truck are making deliveries more sustainable. They’re also significantly reducing the costs of those deliveries using zero-emission trucks. He says savings of EVs over traditional vehicles is substantial and allows XPO and NAL to pass value to customers. It delights Lightning eMotors to be able to provide reliable, sustainable transportation and help companies save money, Reeser adds.
LIGHTNING ELECTRIC TRUCK
The Lightning Electric Class 4 commercial box trucks will deliver products to all five boroughs of New York City. They feature 129 kWhs of battery capacity with a range of 120 miles; they can also charge in just under two hours by an 80-kW on-board DC fast charger.
Fluid Truck is in the process of incorporating 600 Lightning Electric vehicles onto its platform. The company will roll out the vehicles to several cities throughout the United States. Users can book vehicles through the Fluid Truck website or their mobile application.
James Eberhard, founder and CEO of Fluid Truck, says the partnership provides a flexible arrangement for customer operators and drivers. “This means that the vehicles can be used by other fleets when they are not needed by XPO Logistics or NAL Group,” Eberhard says. “Electric vehicles already have a high ROI, and this makes that even higher because the utilization rates of these vehicles will be maximized.”
Additionally, these last-mile delivery vehicles feature Lightning Analytics, a cloud-based telematics system that provides predictive maintenance. Lightning Analytics also provides route scoring, range analysis, driver behavior, and geofencing for maximum range and efficiency.
“Lightning provides customers with the option to use a range of traditional OEM chassis or custom chassis,” says Kash Sethi, chief revenue officer of Lightning eMotors. “We are using a Ford chassis for these particular trucks, which provides the customer with a quality, safety-certified chassis that supports over 1,000 upfit options for boxes, lifts, shelving, flooring, and interior systems and provides the customer with the peace of mind knowing they have a well-established worldwide network for support, service, and spare parts.”
Find out more, visit www.lightningemotors.com.
