Electric Vans Cut Delivery Costs 65% in California Test

Going electric shouldn't mean going broke, and one California company just proved it doesn't have to.

Gateway Fleets ordered 100 electric delivery vans from Workhorse Group, set to hit the roads in July 2026. But the real story isn't the trucks themselves. It's how Gateway is making the electric switch actually work for delivery companies that can't afford massive upfront costs.

Here's the problem Gateway solved: most delivery companies want to go electric, but they get stuck on the logistics. They need trucks, charging stations, depot space, and technical support. Buying all that separately costs a fortune and takes months to set up.

Gateway packages everything together. Fleets lease the electric vans and get instant access to charging depots already built and ready to go. No huge down payment. No scrambling to install chargers. Just plug in and start saving money.

And those savings are real. Gateway ran a year-long test at its Riverside, California location. Even after paying for electricity, delivery routes cost 65% less to fuel than traditional gas-powered vans.

The trucks themselves are built for the job. Each Workhorse W56 carries up to 10,000 pounds, travels about 150 miles on a charge, and offers 1,000 cubic feet of cargo space. That's plenty for the last-mile delivery routes that crisscross neighborhoods every day.

Workhorse has already delivered over 1,100 electric vehicles that have logged more than 20 million real-world miles. The company builds them at its Indiana factory, which can produce over 5,000 vehicles annually.

Gateway plans to expand beyond Southern California in the coming months, adding more charging depots in key delivery markets. That means more companies will get access to affordable electric fleets without the headache of building infrastructure from scratch.

The Ripple Effect

This model could change how thousands of delivery companies think about going electric. When the barrier isn't the technology but the logistics and cost, removing those obstacles opens the door for widespread change.

Delivery vans are everywhere in our communities, making hundreds of stops daily. Switching them to electric means cleaner air in the neighborhoods where we live, quieter streets, and lower operating costs that could eventually mean lower delivery fees.

The fleet-as-a-service approach is starting to pop up in different industries. If it works as well in practice as it does on paper, we could see electric delivery vans become the norm rather than the exception.

The math is simple: lower costs plus easier setup equals faster adoption, and that's a win for businesses, communities, and the planet.