Amazon will spend €1 billion over the next five years to electrify its delivery fleet in Europe, Reuters has reported.
Currently the e-commerce giant has around 3,000 zero-emission last-mile delivery vans in Europe and the investment will allow the company to up that figure to 10,000. The company will invest £300 million in the United Kingdom alone, where it plans to have up to 700 electric heavy goods vehicles by 2025.
Amazon plans to install hundreds of fast charging points for electric vehicles at its European warehouses and delivery hubs, allowing the fleet to recharge in around two hours. The company will also double the number of European “micromobility hubs”, which deliver packages via cargo bike and on foot. There are currently 20 such hubs.
Amazon will also buy larger, heavy-duty electric trucks for “middle-mile shipments.” It’s not clear which manufacturer will deliver these vehicles, but options include the Tesla Smi, Freightliner eCascadia and Volvo VNR electric. The online retailer has ordered 100,000 electric delivery vans from Rivian, the company it invested $700 million into in 2019, but it’s not known when that order will be fully delivered.
Amazon has also ordered electric vehicles from Mercedes-Benz, Lion Electric and Volvo.
The move to invest more in electric vehicles comes at a time when fuel costs have soared in Europe and the world as a result of Russia’s war in Ukraine. As a result, logistics companies are attempting to find alternative modes of transport which rely less heavily on traditional fuels.
In the first six months of 2022, Europe was overtaken by China in the race to introduce more electric vehicles. In the European Economic Area, battery electric and hybrid plug in vehicles made up 19% of all new vehicle registrations. China, which was previously behind Europe, reached 24%.