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DHL piloting use of heavy-duty electric trucks in US

Los Angeles is launch site for the vehicles

Mark Solomon
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(Photo: DHL)

German transport and logistics provider DHL said Tuesday that it is piloting the use of four battery-powered heavy-duty trucks in Los Angeles, its first U.S. foray into Class 8 electric vehicles.

The trucks, manufactured by BYD Motors, will haul goods to and from DHL’s Los Angeles air gateway and service center facilities, DHL said. The vehicles’ average length of haul will be 36 miles, and each truck will make multiple hauls per day, according to a company spokesman.

The vehicles will be used to support DHL’s peak U.S. holiday season operations. Terms of the BYD transaction were not disclosed.

DHL already operates electric-powered vans in the California and New York markets. Its air express unit, DHL Express, has 72 such vans on order. The vans on order will primarily be used in New York and California, DHL said.


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Mark Solomon

Formerly the Executive Editor at DC Velocity, Mark Solomon joined FreightWaves as Managing Editor of Freight Markets. Solomon began his journalistic career in 1982 at Traffic World magazine, ran his own public relations firm (Media Based Solutions) from 1994 to 2008, and has been at DC Velocity since then. Over the course of his career, Solomon has covered nearly the whole gamut of the transportation and logistics industry, including trucking, railroads, maritime, 3PLs, and regulatory issues. Solomon witnessed and narrated the rise of Amazon and XPO Logistics and the shift of the U.S. Postal Service from a mail-focused service to parcel, as well as the exponential, e-commerce-driven growth of warehouse square footage and omnichannel fulfillment.