Amazon orders 148 electric trucks and makes use of electric rail

Amazon has placed its largest-ever order of electric heavy-goods vehicles (eHGVs), and will be using the UK’s electric rail network to transport packages.

More than 140 new electric Mercedes-Benz Truck eActros 600 trucks and eight Volvo FM Battery Electric trucks are joining Amazon’s transportation network over the next 18 months.
 
The company will also install additional fast charging infrastructure across key UK sites, including 360kW electric charging points capable of charging the 40-tonne Mercedes-Benz Truck eActros 600 trucks from 20 to 80 per cent in just over an hour. The new electric trucks will have a range of 310 miles (500 km) on full charge.
 
Around 20 of the Mercedes-Benz trucks will join Amazon’s transportation network following the company’s participation in the UK Government’s Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator programme (ZEHID), with a proportion funded by the Department for Transport and coordinated in partnership with Innovate UK. Amazon has also added eight additional Volvo FM Battery Electric trucks as part of the programme.
 
The new electric trucks, operated by Amazon’s carrier partners, will haul trailers with products and customer packages to and from Amazon’s fulfilment centres, sort centres and finally delivery stations, from where packages are delivered to customers’ doorsteps.

For the first time in the UK, Amazon has also launched rail deliveries at scale. Amazon products are loaded onto train carriages on the fully electric West Coast Main Line between Scotland and the Midlands. Products are then picked up from stations close to local Amazon delivery and fulfilment centres– ready for sorting and packing ahead of customer deliveries. Products are also transported from stations and Amazon’s wider fulfilment network to ferry ports, to further reduce on-road traffic, while giving small and medium sized UK businesses easier access to European markets.
 
More than 20 million products sold on Amazon are expected to travel on the UK’s electric rail network this year, avoiding traffic congestion and carbon emissions, with plans to expand across further rail routes before the end of the year.

Future of Roads Minister, Lilian Greenwood said: “Business has a crucial role to play in decarbonising our roads, and that’s why it’s fantastic to see Amazon place the UK’s biggest ever order of electric trucks, supported in part by the Government’s £200m ‘Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator’ project. This comes on top of our £2.3 billion to help industry and consumers switch to electric vehicles, supporting jobs, attracting investment and making Britain a clean energy superpower.”
 
Amazon has also launched new on-foot deliveries across central London, with pilots developed in partnership with the London Boroughs of Hackney, Westminster and Islington. Delivery associates are making customer deliveries on foot with carts that can be restocked on-the-go from vans dotted around the capital.