Carlsberg Group adds 20 new electric trucks to fleet

Image: Carlsberg Group

The firm announced the delivery of the trucks on Wednesday (1 September) after first pledging to purchase at least 20 electric Renault Trucks vehicles in February 2019. It added its first electric heavy goods vehicle (HGV) from the brand to its fleet in November 2020.

The 20 new trucks are Renault Trucks D Wide Z.E model, which weighs 26 tonnes and has a payload of 13.8 tonnes. The model has a range of around 200km (124 miles) and Carlsberg Group has outlined plans to charge all of the vehicles using 100% renewable electricity, with some power being self-generated at a string of five onsite solar PV systems.

Carlsberg Group will use the new trucks to deliver products to customers from a network of 12 logistics sites. The vehicles will be based at its Feldschlösschen brewery for charging.

“We’re committed to cutting carbon at every stage, including logistics, which globally accounts for around 12% of the footprint of a beer,” Carlsberg Group’s executive vice-president for the supply chain, Victor Shevstov, said. 

“We’ve been pioneering the use of smaller electric trucks for beer delivery in Switzerland since 2008. Our new addition to the fleet will help to deliver larger quantities of beer with even lower emissions.”

Carlsberg Group is notably working towards zero carbon emissions at breweries and a 30% reduction in beer-in-hand emissions by 2030.  The targets are the headline of the firm’s ‘Together Towards Zero’ sustainability strategy.

In time, Carlsberg Group has stated, it intends to convert its entire fleet of vehicles based at Feldschlösschen to electric. Another key part of its plans to decarbonise transport and logistics emissions is to move deliveries off of the roads and onto the rail network where possible. 60% of the goods produced at Feldschlösschen are sent to distribution centres and customers via rail.

Earlier this summer, the UK Government outlined plans to end the sale of new petrol and diesel trucks by 2040. The Transport Decarbonisation Plan, published in August, saw the Department for Transport (DfT) launching consultations on proposals to phase out polluting vehicles weighing between 3.5 tonnes and 26 tonnes from 2035 and those weighing more than 26 tonnes from 2040. 

The EU is now facing calls to build on its commitment to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by  2035 with measures to decarbonise other forms of road transport – going beyond mandating more efficient models.

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Sarah George