StreetScooter was launched in 2010 to make electric mobility attractive for business and commercial vehicles as well, joining ecology and economy. Four years later, Deutsche Post DHL Group (German logistics group) became the owner of StreetScooter to secure in-house electric vehicle production.
Without making any pompous announcements, Streetscooter designed and built a simple and cost-efficient solution, producing approximately 2,000 electric vans per year. Online shopping has increased massively and with that, parcel deliveries have as well, so something had to be done to keep air pollution in German cities low.
The new EVs have demonstrated a very good relationship between economy and ecology, so the company now wishes to increase their EV production and offer their e-mobility product to other countries as well, which is something that has caused a little stir among other, larger manufacturers of electric vehicles, such as Volkswagen. The latter is reportedly also not very pleased about the latest developments, since Deutsche Post is replacing conventional Volkswagen vans with their own envrionmentally-friendly commercial EVs. Currently, 2,500 StreetScooter vans are active on German roads (and further 100 in the Netherlands), and Deutsche Post plans to even double that amount in the short term.
Deutsche Post board member Juergen Gerdes said in a statement for RP Online that they will build a new factory for the production of StreetScooter e-vans, expecting to produce 20,000 units per year. Customers will be able to choose their preferred colour (not only the signature German yellow), while the price for the basic model with a range of 80 kilometers and with maximum load capacity of 4 m3 will start at 32,000 euros. The long-term plan includes producing e-vans for customers from all around the world, rolling out 100,000 units per year from 10 car-manufacturing plants.