The Ukrposhta postal agency plans to buy 200-250 electric vehicles in the period of 2017-2018. Ukrposhta’s first deputy general director for operations Oleksandr Pertsovskyi announced this at a news briefing.
Ukrposhta’s first electric vehicles will deliver parcels in cities with populations of at least 1 million (Kyiv, Odesa, and Kharkiv) and possibly in Dnipro. According to Pertsovskyi, two or three models of electric vehicles are optimal for urban and rural areas, but the company will prepare the required specifications and invite tenders for supply of such vehicles.
"In the first stage, we will strive to ensure that 15% of the automobile fleet is made up of electric vehicles. Then, we will move to regional cities and gradually increase the proportion of electric vehicles. We will further expand the geography over a period of 4-5 years. This is a well-considered strategy, and we are not saying that Ukrposhta’s electric vehicles will appear in all Ukrainian cities tomorrow. We want to do it step by step," Pertsovskyi said.
"We are proceeding based on the experience of Deutsche Post, and we are seeing that the cost of the vehicles that are manufactured for them is about EUR 15,000. If we can get such a proposal in Ukraine, it will be a good solution," said Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelian.
As reported earlier, EBRD senior banker Mark Magaletsky said in an earlier interview with the CFTS portal that the EBRD was planning to cooperate with Ukrposhta on purchase of electric vehicles.
As the CFTS reported, the management of the Nova Poshta postal and logistics company has announced that the company intends to create its own fleet of aircraft in the near future and that the aircraft will initially be used to deliver parcels within Ukraine and later to deliver international parcel and freight.
"We plan to have a Nova Poshta aircraft by 2018. Maybe 2-3 years will be needed for the company to begin using its aircraft and begin delivering parcels directly from America and China with its own aircraft. That is our goal. Then, we will be able to switch to minimum periods and regulate cost and quality," Nova Poshta’s co-owner Volodymyr Popereshniuk said.
