Deutsche Post spokesperson Achim Gahr said Bonn is the first city in Germany where they have employed their carbon-free concept. They have been transforming the fleet to electric vehicles since 2013. Because the program has shown such positive results, other cities will also receive the electric vehicles. The StreetScooter was developed in-house and is produced by Deutsche Post, with 1,000 vehicles having been manufactured by the end of August.

45-year-old Heike Göbel has been driving the StreetScooter for four years already. For the Wachtberg area, there are 17 electric vehicles, eight of them StreetScooters. She says the maximum distance her electric delivery vehicle travels is 80 kilometers but she normally drives around 10 kilometers a day, and the maximum need for the area would be 35 kilometers. What’s important for her is an electric plug-in at hip level, a mail box next to the driver’s seat instead of a passenger seat and a rear view camera. The battery gets charged overnight.

According to Gahr, 13,500 of the 30,000 company vehicles have been enhanced with energy-efficient technical modifications, and over 1,000 of the fleet are the StreetScooters, which are fully emission free and at the same time help reduce noise pollution. The Post is committed to do its part in protecting the climate; the goal says Gahr is to reduce carbon emissions of the fleet by 30 percent from 2007 to 2020. “At the moment we are 25 percent.”

It was not an easy transition to the electric fleet which makes Gahr even more pleased to hear positive feedback about the vehicles. At first, they could not find a German car-maker to deliver the goods. They had to make a decision to develop their own electric vehicle, which they did with the help of their postal delivery employees. Producer of the vehicles is Streetscooter GmbH in Aachen, which is now owned one hundred percent by Deutsche Post. The first StreetScooter rolled off the production line in 2012. (Orig. text: Axel Vogel)