DP/DHL to build StreetScooter vans for 2 more years

The StreetScooter saga at Deutsche Post continues after the former leader Jürgen Gerdes got laid off last week. Head of the board, Frank Appel now gave an outlook for the electric van making business, saying DP/DHL would consider selling the production.

While chief Frank Appel told the FAZ paper that the SteetScooter was a “very good story” he also said that Deutsche Post does not want to continue StreetScooter production forever but for the “next two years at least”.

Appel added that options such as opening up to the stock market or getting strategic investors or even partners on board are being discussed as well. Rumours of floating the StreetScooter business publicly in order to collect one billion euros for further expansion had been heard already back in April.

Still, the decision to start building electric vehicles in house had been taken out of need as no mayor carmaker was willing to built such electric vans for Deutsche Post back then. Since then, the story of StreetScooter has become indeed one of success. They just opened a second facility in Düren reportedly. Together the two factories have a production capacity of 20,000 electric vans per year, that is 46 electric vehicles a day. This also enables StreetScooter to supply third parties with electric vans as well and has established their existing cooperation with Ford for distributing larger vans.

Therefore, DP/DHL aims for the StreetScooter business and Corporate Incubator division to return a profit by 2020 and the target does not seem too far off.

Taking over the electric van business at DP/DHL is Thomas Ogilvie reportedly for now. He will be in charge of the Corporate Incubations unit, which focuses on mobility solutions, digital platforms and automatisation, and particularly on strengthening their StreetScooter business.

faz.net (original source, in German)