Partners in the European FREVUE project are looking to boost the number of electric vehicles in their fleets and open new urban consolidation centres following promising demonstrator trial results.

FREVUE (Freight Electric Vehicles in Urban Europe), led by the Cross River Partnership (CRP), is an initiative spanning several major European cities that aims to encourage uptake of cleaner, more efficient movement of freight to enhance urban environments for those who live and work there.

The project comprises of 30 European partners concentrated around the cities of Amsterdam, Lisbon, Madrid, Milan, Oslo, Rotterdam, Stockholm and London.

To date, more than 50 vehicles have been procured and delivered across the FREVUE demonstration cities.  Of these, 11 were delivered in London with another six vehicles expected to be operational by October 2015.

Partners taking part in the London trial include Westminster City Council, UPS, UK Power Networks, Imperial College, Transport for London, Arup, the Crown Estate, the Greater London Authority as well as other central London local authorities and Business Improvement Districts.

Based on their positive experience with electric freight vehicles in the project, several partners now want to enlarge their fleets beyond the original target:  in Lisbon, CTT (the Portuguese national postal service) will add another 30 vehicles to their electric freight fleet over the next three years while EMEL (Lisbon’s municipal parking company) will procure six additional vehicles. In Amsterdam, Heineken decided to introduce two more vehicles than originally foreseen.

CRP said these encouraging developments are due to the positive feedback from the electric freight vehicles in operation so far. Overall, the performance of the vehicles is good and most are fully integrated into daily operations. Feedback from drivers remains largely positive with reduced noise levels of the vehicles significantly improving their well-being.

In addition to further vehicles, two new construction consolidation centres (CCCs) are to be developed at large building sites in Stockholm. Both have been inspired by the CCC at the Royal Seaport Area that is part of the FREVUE project.

FREVUE is an urban e-mobility project supported by the European Commission that seeks to demonstrate to industry, consumers and policy-makers how electric vehicles can meet the growing need for sustainable urban logistics.

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