Commercial delivery operator Gateway Fleets ordered 100 medium-duty electric box vans from Workhorse earlier this year. That experiment seems to be going well, because the company just ordered 200 more.
The rapid expansion of online shopping for everything from groceries to car parts and road-ready motorcycles has also seen the expansion of last-mile delivery contractors. They’re the essential workers who keep the online economy rolling, and they are getting positively pummeled by this year’s record fuel prices.
Gateway Fleets gets it, and their “truck-as-a-service” business model bundles purpose-built electric trucks with charging infrastructure, fleet support, and depot access through flexible financing arrangements designed to simplify electric fleet operations for last-mile delivery 3PLs trying to stay asset light. For Gateway, scale follows operator confidence, and the company is doubling down on its initial investment in the vehicles, infrastructure, and support required to underscore its operators’ confidence in their trucks’ ability to keep goods moving day in and day out.
“This partnership brings together three critical components of fleet electrification: a high quality, proven Workhorse truck; a deployment and service partner, Gateway; and our team at Kingsburg, providing full-circle consultative sales, incentive processing and service support,” said Jerry Smith, Owner at Kingsburg Truck Center, the Workhorse dealer who made the sale. “We’ve had nothing but positive feedback on the performance of the W56 this year, and we’re looking forward to an even better 2027.”
The truck, itself
The Workhorse W56 (as in: Class 5 or Class 6) step vans Gateway picked up feature a 178″ wheelbase, 210 kWh battery packs good for up to 150 miles of range per charge while hauling upto 10,000 lbs. in their 1,000 cubic foot box bodies. Every van features a fully-integrated, purpose-built composite body that resists rust, dents, and dings, and features an ergonomic driver environment designed to reduce the physical toll of high-cycle last-mile delivery.
“In today’s era of high and volatile fuel prices, customers are seeking the stability and lower operating costs associated with electric trucks, without sacrificing safety or performance,” said Scott Griffith, Chief Executive Officer at Workhorse. “We believe Gateway’s innovative model will help unlock wider adoption of electric trucks through its bundled pricing that eliminates the two biggest barriers to widespread adoption: the higher upfront cost of the vehicle and the added investment capital required to build out the charging infrastructure.”
Gateway joins existing Workhorse customers like Aramark, Cintas, FedEx, and Canadian shipping giant Purolator. The vans contracted in this new order are expected to begin deploying to customers in the second half of 2027, with deployments continuing through 2028.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Workhorse.
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