UPS

UPS has signed a deal to buy up to 150 eVTOL aircraft from Vermont's Beta Technologies, and is expecting to begin using them for time-sensitive zero-emissions deliveries in certain markets in 2024, taking off and landing on-site at UPS depots.

Back in 2016, ORNL developed a 20-kW wireless charger for electric vehicles with a reported 90 percent efficiency. That was for passenger vehicles, and now a system for a medium duty, plug-in hybrid delivery truck has been successfully tested.

After being granted FAA certification for package delivery by drone last year, UPS Flight Forward has now joined forces with German drone maker Wingcopter to get a new breed of vertical takeoff and landing delivery drones into US skies.

Back in 2018, UPS revealed it was working with UK startup Arrival to develop bespoke electric delivery vehicles for small trials. The two are now taking things up a notch, today announcing a new order of 10,000 purpose-built electric vans.

The latest party to turn to the Silicon Valley startup Matternet for aerial courier solutions is logistics giant UPS, which will use its drones to ferry medical samples between labs and a hospital in North Carolina. ​

UK startup Arrival is working with UPS to develop a new mini fleet of electric delivery vehicles. The e-trucks are to be rolled out in London and Paris this year and are reported capable of rolling much farther between charges than other electric service vehicles currently in operation.

UPS has slowly been adding electric vehicles to its fleet of delivery trucks. But a new partnership with EV-builder Workhorse sees it get in on the ground floor, with the pair to build zero-emission plug-in vehicles from scratch at a cost comparable to its conventionally fueled trucks.​​​

Global shipping giant UPS has teamed with Ohio-based electric truck and drone developer Workhorse Group to trial of a drone that launches from the roof of a delivery vehicle to handle out-of-the-way stops, while the driver continues making other deliveries by road.