Johannesburg, South Africa, June 12, 2023 - FedExExpress, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) and the world’slargest express transportation company, today announced thedeployment of its first 10 electric vehicles (EVs) in South Africa,as part of the company’s continuing efforts to reduce its carbonfootprint and promote sustainable logistics.
Introducing EVs in South Africa marks an important milestone forFedEx, as the company works towards its goal totransform itsentire global pickup and delivery fleet to zero-emission electricvehicles by 2040. To achieve this, FedEx Express willpurchase 50% of its new vehicles as electric by 2025 and ofpurchases will be electric by 2030. In 2021, FedExconducted EVtrials in South Africa to test the vehicle’stechnology and assess its operational effectiveness on a standardroute fully loaded with packages.
The EVs introduced into the FedEx fleet in South Africa are ‘MAXUSeDeliver 3’ which have zero-tailpipe emissions, and on a fullcharge have a delivery capacity of 240 kilometres operationalrange.
“For decades FedEx has been committed to sustainability. Theadoption of these electric vehicles represents another step towardsreducing our environmental impact and achieving carbon-neutraloperations,” says Natasha Parmanand, managing director of FedExExpress Sub-Saharan Africa operations. “With the explosion ofe-commerce, transforming our operations to be more sustainable isnow more important than ever. We believe that this investmentin EV technologywill not only benefit the environment but also improve theefficiency of our operations, and ultimatelyprovide a better service to our customers,” addsNatasha.
In 2003, FedEx was the first delivery company in the world to usehybrid vehicles for pickup and delivery, and in 1994 the companyused its first electric vehicle – an acid battery-powered vehicle –in California. FedEx has been a vocal advocate for improved fuelefficiency standards and policies to support the commercialdeployment of alternative-fuel vehicles.