Fleets taking cautious approach to clean vehicles, Amazon and UberEats leading in urban mobility

Fleet perspectives on clean vehicles:  While many corporations have ambitious sustainability targets in place, greening their fleets is going to take a while. Automotive Fleet just published an in-depth look at the state of clean transportation through interviews with several fleet managers and suppliers. Fleets are paying attention to an onslaught of future electrified product plans among several global automakers; and commitment by several corporations to become carbon neutral or all-electric in the next five to 10 years. As for now, manufacturer incentives for fleets make gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles more appealing than hybrid or electric vehicles. Lack of demand for electrified vehicles has been part of it, according to Tim Cengel, manager, manufacturer relations for Wheels, which has kept automakers staying conservatie in production volumes being set for hybrids and EVs

Ford abandoning cars:  With Ford essentially exiting the car business in North America, the Ford Fusion will be getting axed, along with the Fiesta and Taurus. The Mustang and Focus will still be produced. The automaker will only be offering the Focus Active hatchback as a debut model in 2019. The Ford Fusion had been selling well in the hybrid market and its plug-in hybrid version. The Fusion Hybrid has been beating the Toyota Prius in sales several times in the past couple of years, but it will be going away. Ford Motor Co. has been losing money producing and selling cars and will be focusing more on trucks and SUVs. 

Amazon and UberEats taking the lead:  The urban mobility sector saw a few interesting announcements over the past week. Amazon is offering a new perk to its 100 million Amazon Prime subscribers. Millions of owners of General Motors and Volvo vehicles in 37 cities will be able to have Amazon packages delivered to the trunk of their vehicles. The In-Car Delivery program comes months after the company launched a program allowing homeowners to provide a digital key to allow delivery drivers to drop a package inside their home………. A convincing argument is being made that rapid growth in online delivery services will be adding to urban traffic congestion and pollution. Manhattan is seeing UPS and FedEx paying millions of dollars in parking fees, with commuters upset about the growing traffic congestion coming from the fast-growing online shopping business………… Uber Eats is taking the lead in meal delivery services in the U.S., bringing in nearly as much revenue as GrubHub. Consumers are now spending more on UberEats than on any other food delivery service in nine of the 22 most-populous U.S. cities, according to a new study.

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