The new Royal Mail van is making us inexplicably happy

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Royal Mail has released a new mini-fleet of electric post vans, and there's something about the design that is filling us with happiness. Perhaps it's because it looks like the adorable love child of a van and a coach. Perhaps it's the pleasingly chunky, toy-like exterior. Perhaps its the smooth curves and eye-catching tomato shade. Maybe it's the confusing absence of exterior features like wing mirrors, which make it look a bit like a child's pencil drawing of a van rather than an actual van. Either way, we can't stop looking at it.

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A render of the new vans, from Arrival

The project's eco-friendly credentials have pleased us too. These vans are part of an electric vehicle trial that could help make the UK's postal service a little greener. At the moment, there are nine prototype vans in different sizes roaming the capital from the central London depot. 

The image you can see above is a digital render of the proposed final design, and slightly different to the vans being trialled. However, those missing wing mirrors are deliberate. The vans currently out and about in London do have mirrors, but the new fleet will use cameras to monitor rear traffic. 

The new-look vans are also going down well with the UK public, although parallels have been drawn with a certain well-loved children's TV character design.

These vehicles were created by Oxfordshire car-maker Arrival, and the aim is to see how they cope with the day-to-day demands of the postal service. According to the BBC another batch of 100 electric vans for Royal Mail has been ordered from Peugeot. We'd be pretty pleased to see more of these roaming our streets.

Via BBC.

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