Deutsche Post pulls the plug on StreetScooter
StreetScooter is no more. The electric van manufacturer and subsidiary of Deutsche Post will end production later this year, reports Bloomberg. Over the years, StreetScooter racked up a loss of around €100 million.
Originally developed as a university project, StreetScooter was taken over by Deutsche Post in 2014. Attempts of Deutsche Post to sell the division at a later date, or to find an external partner, were unsuccessful. StreetScooter did secure a deal with Ford to produce a Transit-derived larger electric van.
Deutsche Post planned to replace its full delivery fleet with electric StreetScooters. The vans were also sold to other delivery companies, retailers and large fleets.
From 2021 onwards, Deutsche Post will procure its electric vans from other OEMs.
In all, around 11,000 StreetScooters have already been delivered with several thousands still on the order books for this year.
Rueben Scriven, lead analyst for electric trucks at market research firm Interact Analysis, said: “While StreetScooter was the European market leader for electric light-duty trucks in 2018 with a market share of more than 30%; Arrival and Rivian, two of StreetScooter’s major competitors, have disrupted the market using innovative manufacturing processes and heavy investment in modular skateboard architectures. This has led to the two companies winning recent large orders of more than 110,000 units in total.”
He also points to a decline in growth of the European light-duty electric truck market and a contraction of the Chinese market over fears that the Chinese government will phase out subsidies after 2020.
Image copyright: Deutsche Post DHL Group