New Electric Postmen Helper: development and evaluation

Light Electric Vehicles (LEV) form a group of promising alternative vehicles for personal mobility and goods delivery. This paper reports about the European industrial EUREKA project called New Electric Postman Helper. This project aims to develop the drive train for a range of mobility devices for postal distribution. The severe postal requirements which are not fully fulfilled by the vehicles on the European market today, and the strong interest of the postal organizations in solutions towards this issue, induced the set-up of this project in 2005. The introduction of LEV, in particular two- and three-wheelers, in the postal delivery business allows longer, more efficient and more sustainable delivery rounds. The close collaboration with several European postal organizations, has allowed defining the specifications of the electric power systems with characteristics meeting their specific needs. From an extensive questionnaire, the requirements of the different European postal operators were determined. A set of discriminating parameters was identified and allowed to calculate the design parameters of the electrical power system range starting from the postal requirements. The required energy capacity of the battery pack and the required motor torque were calculated from the postal parameters by using a dedicated design tool and resulted in the conception of a modular concept for postal electric vehicles.