Amazon makes ‘largest ever’ UK order of electric trucks to cut carbon emissions

Amazon is to deploy nearly 150 electric heavy goods vehicles as well as piling packages on to trains and post-style trolleys in an effort to reduce the carbon footprint of delivering goods in the UK.

The tech company said it had bought more than 140 electric Mercedes-Benz heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) and eight Volvo lorries – which it says is the UK’s biggest order of electric trucks – that can take loads of up to 40 tonnes.

The vehicles will hit the road over the next 18 months, increasing the online retailer’s electric HGV fleet from nine at present.

The US-owned company’s switch to electric logistics is partly funded by the government under its zero emission HGV and infrastructure demonstrator programme (ZEHID). Amazon plans to install fast-charging points across its UK network to keep the trucks in action.

Amazon’s move is part of a £300m investment in green transport for the UK, announced in 2022, when the group hoped to have as many as 700 electric HGVs on the road by 2025, up from just five then, as well as thousands of smaller electric vans.

However, a lack of public infrastructure, high costs and concerns about vehicle range have held back the switch to electric HGVs across the industry, according to the Road Haulage Association, which says that just 300 are registered on UK roads out of a total lorry fleet of 500,000.

Anna Krajinska, the UK director of the green transport lobby group Transport & Environment, said sales had also been held back by the lack of a binding zero emissions target for HGVs in the UK.

“There is a shortage of supply side regulation in the UK to make it more affordable and without that regulation there is not investment or certainty for the charging industry to roll out infrastructure,” she said.

Nicola Fyfe, the European vice-president of Amazon Logistics, said its investment in the electric vehicles was “a win for our customers, the environment and our business”.

“Decarbonising our transport network is key in helping us achieve our goal to reach net zero carbon emissions across our operations by 2040 and today’s announcement is an exciting and major step forward for us in this mission,” she added.

The move comes as Amazon begins its first large-scale deliveries by train. Containers of products from its warehouses will be loaded on to cargo trains on the fully electric west coast mainline between Scotland and the Midlands for pick-up from stations close to local Amazon delivery and fulfilment centres or ferry ports.

The scheme will enable 20m products a year to be transported by train. Amazon previously only transported a small number of packages via train using carts loaded on to passenger trains.

Amazon has also launched new on-foot deliveries, using heavy carts, in central London, with pilots in Hackney, Westminster and Islington.

The carts can be restocked from vans, helping the company reduce van journeys in the capital’s congestion charge zone.

Amazon said more than 70% of the zone was now covered by electric vans, e-cargo bikes and on-foot deliveries, operated by its partners.

The company is expanding electric deliveries across UK city centres, with recent electric cargo bike launches in Belfast and Norwich joining existing Amazon fleets run by self-employed partners in London, Manchester and Glasgow.