UK mail service Royal Mail has today (August 19) announced the launch of a six-month trial of novel tyres for its delivery vans. These ‘emission reducing’ tyres are designed to produce fewer microparticle emissions than conventional models, and can reportedly improve EV range by up to 11%.
The new tyres are set to be trialled on 15 of the mail group’s battery-powered vehicles at its
West London Delivery Office near Wembley. As well as monitoring the range of cars in the trial, Royal Mail will also be measuring the levels of particulate matter emitted from the tyres. While tyre abrasion is a fairly unavoidable effect of everyday wear and tear, particles emitted contribute to air and water pollution and EV’s can experience higher volumes of this due to increased weight and torque. As such, cutting back on this byproduct is a matter of interest for groups looking to transition to battery powered models.
“As a company, we are committed to making changes to our operations that reduce our environmental impact,” Royal Mail’s chief engineer and fleet director James Baker said.
“The trial and potential wide-scale introduction of more efficient and environmentally friendly tyres enables us to help achieve this, while allowing us to continue to deliver letters and parcels safely, efficiently and responsibly.”
The project comes from a collaboration with manufacturer ENSO, which works to reduce pollution from rubber in conventional tyres. The company’s range-boosting products have already proven effective on fossil fuel-based cars, delivering a 50-mile increase for a Renault Zoe in trials. ENSO was a winner of Transport for London (TfL)’s London FreightLab innovation challenge – a scheme established to find solutions to London’s congestion and road pollution levels. TfL is also financially backing the trials of ENSO’s tyres on Royal Mail vehicles.
Gunnlaugur Erlendsson, ENSO Founder and CEO said: “ENSO’s innovative EV tyres are designed to be EV-range-extending and particulate matter-pollution-reducing and through TfL’s FreightLab trial with Royal Mail, we aim to demonstrate their contribution towards reducing air pollution in London.”
Last month, Royal Mail joined the likes of BP, BT and Scottish Power in pledging to replace its delivery fleets with EVs by 2030 at the latest. The mailing group has also recently announced plans to add 3,000 low-emission delivery vans to its fleet, which would increase its battery vehicles by tenfold.
