Swedish retailer Coop will begin delivering food using car company Volvo’s new electric trucks, it announced last week.
In December, zero-emission deliveries will start at 13 stores in the city of Gothenburg. Swedish trucking company TGM, operating for DB Schenker, will be responsible for logistics and deliveries using the new electric vehicle.
The Volvo FL Electric is 10 metres long and is ‘tailor-made’ for temperature-sensitive food transportation. It holds 18 pallets, and due to the electric engine, produces significantly less noise, Coop said. The truck was introduced in April of this year.
"Cooperation with Volvo means a lot for Coop. I see it as a starting point for electrifying parts of our transport by road, which in the long term will be an important part of reducing Coop's environmental impact, " commented Örjan Grandin, vice president of Coop Sverige AB, as well as business area director of supply chain and logistics.
Environmental Efforts
Coop has implemented other initiatives to cut down on the impact of goods transport in recent years. The retailer has been a part of the DenCity collaboration project for many years, working with academia and industry to produce innovative solutions to increase sustainability and ease of transport in densely populated regions.
The Volvo initiative is one of the results of this project.
In 2009, Coop’s goods transportation train began running between southern Sweden and Mälardalen, eliminating the need for 12,000 trucks.
Existing truck transports run almost entirely on HVO100, a fossil-free diesel fuel which produces 92% less CO2 emissions than that of fossil-fuel diesel.
The European Union executive proposed a 30% reduction target of CO2 emissions from trucks by 2030 in mid-May, and many countries, including Japan and Canada, have already set CO2 reduction targets.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Karen Henderson. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
