Royal Mail & Magtec Unveil New Electric Postal Trucks

Magtec and Royal Mail have announced a new partnership for the trial of a set of MEV190 electric postal trucks.

The partnership, which has been made possible by an 800,000 GBP grant facilitated by the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC) in collaboration with the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and Innovate UK, will see the two companies employ two new 19-tonne vehicles on delivery routes within North West London.

Wrapped in Royal Mail livery, the electric truck will be the company’s first and operate predominately out of the Greenford Mail Centre, delivering and collecting mail both to and from nearby delivery offices.

The vehicle is capable of travelling up to 125 miles on a single charge, and has a top highway speed of 56mph.

Anna Pearson, Fleet Innovation and Environment Manager at Royal Mail, said:

We’re excited to welcome the Magtec truck to the Royal Mail fleet. We’ve been rolling out electric vans in our ‘final mile’ fleet for a number of years, and now we want to learn more about how we can decarbonise our national distribution fleet of over 4,000 trucks.

This trial will help strengthen our position as the UK’s largest electric delivery fleet operator, while ensuring we have the reliability we need for the challenge of delivering to every single one of the UK’s 32 million addresses.

Powered by a P220 permanent-magnet motor; the MEV190 trucks exhibit a peak output of 200kW and a torque of 3600Nm, with an on-board passive cooling system designed to minimise cell heating, ensuring long-term durability and a projected lifespan of up to 10 years.

The units are fully compliant with UNECE Regulation 100 (safety of electric vehicles) and Regulation 10 (EMC/EMI) and utilise a water-cooling system shared across the motor, controller, DC-DC converter, and charger using standard automotive components. Each vehicle touts a full charge time of three hours.

Marcus Jenkins, CTO at Magtec, commented:

This collaboration represents a significant milestone in advancing EV technology for medium-duty trucks.

By addressing the challenges of power inefficiencies and range anxiety, we aim to provide fleet operators with a reliable, cost-effective solution that supports their decarbonisation goals while maintaining operational reliability.

By July 2025, Royal Mail will employ more than 7,000 electric vans across the United Kingdom, with each vehicle receiving a full charge via 100% renewable energy at various delivery offices along delivery routes.

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