As the e-commerce giant Amazon moves to accelerate its efforts to achieve net-zero carbon, the company announced that it would invest €1 billion ($974.8 million) in electric vans, truck fleets, and low-emission package hubs across Europe, as per Electrek.
The announcement was made on Monday. According to Amazon, they will roll out the investment in electric vehicles over the next five years.
Amazon Will Buy 10,000 Vans Across Europe by 2025
In Europe alone, there are 3,000 zero-emission Amazon delivery vans. Last year, 100 million of the company's packages were delivered by the said vehicles.
With the €1 billion investment, the company can purchase up to 10,000 vans across Europe by 2025, as per Tech Times. This is three times the number of electric vans the company currently has.
These electric vans that will be purchased with the new investment, will be used on local delivery routes in order to bring packages to individual homes.
For larger packages shipments, Amazon is planning to get more than 1,500 larger, heavy-duty electric trucks such as Tesla Semi, Freightliner eCascadia, and Volvo VNR electric.
The larger, heavy-duty electric trucks should be able to transport huge amounts of packages from ports to distribution centers.
Aside from electric vans and truck fleets, Amazon is also planning to install thousands of chargers. These will be placed at the company's facilities around Europe.
In 20 European cities, Amazon has delivery hubs that utilie cargo bike and on foot delivery to bring packages to people's doorstep. This "micro-mobility" network of hubs will be increased, according to the company.
According to Amazon, the €1 billion investment was also aimed at stimulating innovation across the transportation industry. Likewise, it also aims to encourage more public charging infrastructure for electric vehicles across the continent.
Amazon Makes Electric Van Orders from Multiple Companies
Startups have been trying to bring electric vans and trucks to the market. However, they are facing tight competition with the EV manufacturing giants like General Motors and Ford Motors.
Aside from Amazon, a number of large logistics firms have made commitments to purchase zero-emission electric vans and trucks.
For instance, package delivery companies United Parcel Service Inc and FedEx Corp have also pledged to buy electric vans and trucks. However, there is still a limited supply of EVs in the market.
While there is no statement from Amazon regarding the brands of vehicles the company would buy, currently, it has a pending order of 100,000 Rivian Electric Delivery Vans. But it might take some time before Rivian can complete the orders.
In 2019, the company spent $700 million on Rivian. According to the report, the e-commerce giant is also planning to build electric vans with Mercedes in Europe.
Just last week, Volvo announced that Amazon bought 20 electric trucks from them. As Tech Times cited: "Volvo Trucks will deliver fully electric heavy-duty trucks to Amazon in Germany by year-end."
Aside from Rivian and Volvo, Amazon is also spotted making orders from Lion Electric and Mercedes-Benz.
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