Royal Mail trials electric trucks in the capital

A year-long trial is underway which sees the Royal Mail using nine prototype electric trucks from Banbury-based firm Arrival.

The new vehicles will be operating out of the Mount Pleasant depot to move packages between mail distribution centres in the city and local area.

According to Wired, Paul Gatti, Royal Mail Fleet’s managing director said the vehicles will be used for mail collection from its larger sites.

The Arrival vehicles have been designed to be able to run on their battery for 100 miles and the firm says they will produce zero emissions for this time.

A dual power mode within the vehicles can be used after the first 100 miles to "top up" the battery.

•Photo courtesy of Royal Mail