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With European operations at the forefront of Amazon’s sustainable transportation push, the company plans to invest more than 1 billion euros to more than double the size of its electric van delivery fleet in Europe over the next five years, the company announced Wednesday.
The e-commerce giant last year delivered more than 100 million packages to customer doorsteps in Europe using electric delivery vans and other zero-emission vehicles, per its sustainability report.
Currently operating with more than 3,000 electric vans delivering packages to customers in Europe. The online retail giant expects to grow its fleet to more than 10,000 vans by 2025.
“Our transportation network is one of the most challenging areas of our business to decarbonize, and to achieve net-zero carbon will require a substantial and sustained investment,”
Andy Jassy, CEO, Amazon
Amazon further expects to purchase and roll out more than 1,500 electric heavy goods vehicles in the coming years, as it moves away from diesel trucks for long-haul transportation. The online retailer currently has five electric heavy goods vehicles on the road in the U.K., and it will have 20 on the road in Germany by the end of this year.
As per the company’s announcement, Amazon to power its eHGVs will build hundreds of specialized fast chargers across its European facilities, allowing the company to charge the vehicles in approximately two hours.
“Deploying thousands of electric vans, long-haul trucks, and bikes will help us shift further away from traditional fossil fuels—and hopefully, further encourage transportation and automotive industries in Europe and around the world to continue scaling and innovating, as we will have to work together to reach our climate goals,” Jassy said.
As part of the investment, Amazon also expects to double its number of smaller, centrally located delivery stations it calls “micro-mobility hubs” by 2025.
These micro-mobility hubs allow the company to take its delivery vans off the road in busy city centers, and replace them with other delivery methods such as e-cargo bikes and on-foot deliveries. Amazon, at present, has micro-mobility hubs in more than 20 European cities, including London, Munich and Paris.
