Amazon has brought five electric HGVs (heavy goods vehicles), each weighing around 37 tonnes, into its delivery truck fleet for the first time.
The online retailer plans to incorporate a total of nine electric HGVs into its fleet by the end of 2022, joining more than 1,000 electric delivery vans currently on the road in the UK.
In 2019, the firm’s CEO Jeff Bezos said that Amazon was aiming to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040 following a letter earlier in the year from more than 7,600 employees urging him to introduce a comprehensive climate change mitigation plan.
The electric HGVs will be Amazon’s first in the UK and Europe and form part of its ‘Shipment Zero’ plan to deliver 50 per cent of shipments with net-zero carbon by 2030. The plan goes beyond just transportation as it includes aims to achieve net zero from its fulfilment centres themselves as well as the materials used to package the items. This also includes a commitment to power its facilities via renewable energy.
“We’re committed to becoming net-zero carbon by 2040, and this is a milestone as we continue to decarbonise our transportation network so we can deliver more customer orders using zero-emissions vehicles.”
Transport minister Trudy Harrison said: “It is fantastic to see Amazon and the fleet industry playing its part in the UK’s world-leading plans to clean up our air, boost green jobs and decarbonise our vital transport network.
“Amazon plays a key role in transporting goods to towns and villages up and down the country and I’m pleased to see they are leading the way by going green.
“With the zero-emission market now taking off for even the heaviest HGVs, we’ll be able to move more products around in a way that’s friendlier to our environment while supporting our net-zero mission.”
In 2020, Amazon ordered fully electric trucks from Lion Electric in the US and also began testing hydrogen-powered trucks.
Source: E&T
