Raphael Thys
General Motors electric van. (Image source: Twitter/Brightdrop)
An EV manufactured by General Motors set the Guinness World Record for the greatest distance travelled by an electric van on a single charge. The journey covered by the EV was almost 420 kilometres.
BrightDrop, a venture by General Motors, collaborated with FedEx to achieve the feat. The EV, BrightDrop Zevo 600, covered the journey from New York City to Washington DC, in one single charge. The van with the FedEx logo painted over it, managed to cover the 418-kilometre-long journey and also deliver a shipment of sustainable cleaning products to a family-owned chain in Washington D.C.
The announcement of the record-making journey was made on Earth Day.
“Since the beginning, the Zevo 600 has been a record-setting vehicle. Now we are seeing first-hand what BrightDrop can do by pairing our zero-operating-emissions technology with FedEx, a leader in the transportation and delivery industry,” said Travis Katz, BrightDrop CEO, in a press release. Lauding the effort made in the direction of “decarbonising deliveries,” Travis highlighted the importance of “having a long battery range with reliable power,” in the electrification of delivery fleets.
Mitch Jackson, chief sustainability officer at FedEx, mentioned the organisation’s goal of achieving carbon-neutral operations by 2040. “Electrifying our entire parcel pickup and delivery fleet is a crucial component of that goal and we are thrilled BrightDrop is bringing real solutions to the market that can help us get there,” he said.
The delivery van manufactured by BrightDrop, under the aegis of General Motors, is a step-in van that has more than 16 cubic meters of cargo area. The van comes with almost 1000 kilograms of payload capacity. The EV is equipped with various features including, Automatic Emergency Braking and Forward Collision Alert.
As per the statement by General Motors, BrightDrop has secured 2,500 from FedEx alone. The total number of orders received by the company stands at 25,000.
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