A Look at the Modec Lithium-Ion FedEx Express Delivery Vehicle

I had the pleasure to introduce the first all electric, zero emission pickup and delivery vehicle into the global fleet at Fedex Express. This truck, produced by Modec, a UK company will be serving our customers in London as an emission free vehicle. The Modec delivery truck joins the largest hybrid fleet in the world and brings our sustainable vehicle technology from low emission vehicles to emission free vehicles. Nine other Modec vehicles will be serving London by the spring of 2009 expanding the number of customers we can serve without producing any emissions.

The Modec vehicle runs completely on lithium-ion battery power stored in a removable "casset," which can charge overnight. The Modec truck is expected to travel at least 100 Kilometers per day on a single charge. This advanced technology is the result of many months of hard work by the vehicle engineering team at FedEx Express and designers and engineers at Modec in Coventry England. The Modec trucks are exceptionally quiet and maneuverable, and we believe they are a perfect design for urban locations like London.

As they join the global fleet of hybrid-electric FedEx Express vehicles, they show how innovation can address complex issue of having both environmentally sustainable vehicles and world class Express delivery service. Our commitment to innovation demonstrates these two goals are not mutually exclusive.

You are most likely aware that FedEx Express has recently announced our commitment to improving fuel efficiency of our 50,000 vehicle fleet by 20 percent by 2020. This will correspond to similar reductions in CO2 and other emissions which, as we have all come to learn, is carbon burned in an engine produces carbon which comes out of the tailpipe, or in other words: carbon in equals carbon out.

Electric vehicle (EV) and Hybrid-electric (HEV) technology have come a long way since we introduced our first hybrid vehicle in Sacramento, CA in the winter of 2004. I believed then, and continue to believe today, that the FedEx effort of supporting this new technology will bring the transportation industry closer to a point where vehicles like this are not unusual, but rather the norm.