Amazon to deploy heavy-duty electric trucks

Volvo Trucks has announced it will be delivering fully electric heavy-duty trucks to Amazon in Germany by the end of the year. The 20 Volvo FH Electric trucks are expected to drive more than 1 million road kilometres annually, fuelled with electricity instead of diesel.

Heavy goods vehicles and other commercial vehicles currently make up around 36% of Germany’s domestic transport emissions¹ — making road transport decarbonisation an important factor in addressing net zero goals.

“Big actors in the transport business play a key role in leading the industry’s efforts to lower its carbon footprint. Therefore, I’m glad that Amazon is working with us to help reduce their emissions in longer and heavier transport assignments,” said Jessica Sandström, Senior Vice President of Product Management at Volvo Trucks.

Volvo Trucks started the series production of heavy-duty electric trucks in September this year.

“Globally we now have six electric truck models ready to order and in series production to meet the increasing demand for decarbonising goods transports. This is an encouraging step forward for reducing climate change impacts,” Sandström said.

The electric versions of its most important product range — the heavy-duty Volvo FH, Volvo FM and Volvo FMX trucks — will play a vital role in reaching Volvo Trucks’ global target that by 2030 half of all new trucks sold will be battery or fuel cell electric. These electric heavy-duty trucks can operate at a total weight of 44 tonnes and the three models mentioned represent around two-thirds of the company’s sales.

Amazon will use the trucks to replace its diesel counterparts, with the new fleet playing a key role in electrification initiatives through the company’s transportation chain.

“Amazon is committed to decarbonising its fleet, and the middle mile has been a notoriously hard-to-abate sector,” said Andreas Marschner, Vice President Transportation Services Europe at Amazon. “That’s why welcoming these electric heavy goods vehicles from Volvo into our fleet is such a critical milestone. We’re operating one of the fastest-growing commercial transportation electrification programs, and we’ll continue to invest and innovate to decarbonise and deliver packages to customers with zero emissions.”

The Volvo FH Electric has a battery capacity of 540 kWh, with 490 kW of continuous output power. Its range is up to 300 km, but it can cover up to 500 km during a normal workday if a top-up charge is added, eg, during a lunch break.

Other vehicles in Volvo’s electric truck range include the Volvo FL and FE Electric, manufactured in Europe from 2019 for city distribution and refuse handling, and the Volvo VNR Electric for North America, which began production in 2020.

Reference

^{1. Bundesministerium für Umwelt und Verkehr, Klimaschutz in Zahlen — Fakten, Trends und Impulse deutscher Klimapolitik, Ausgabe 2021 (bmuv.de), Page 36}

Image caption: The Volvo FH Electric. Image courtesy of Volvo.