Albert Heijn will electrify Dutch city fleets entirely
The Dutch retailer Albert Heijn will decarbonise all deliveries in the centre of the Hague by the end of this year, including home delivery and the supply of its stores. Throughout 2023, deliveries in central Rotterdam, Utrecht, and Amsterdam are also to be made only electrically.
To this end, Albert Heijn and its transport partners plan to increase the number of e-trucks and e-delivery vans in the coming period. The retailer leaves partners and the number of vehicles unmentioned in the statement.
However, the latest press photo shows a range of vehicles from electric light trucks and a Fiat Ducato with a box body to larger distribution trucks from DAF and Mercedes-Benz. The latter is an eActros. Already previous efforts to switch to electric vehicles have seen Albert Heijn using an early Fuso eCanter, and the company has also had 25 VW Crafter converted to electric drives for use in the Amsterdam delivery fleet.
In this next bigger move announced today, the company is focusing early on the so-called zero-emission zones that Dutch cities will introduce from 2025 to improve the air quality in those areas. By 2030, only emission-free delivery cars and trucks will be allowed to drive through city centres as reported. So far, 14 Dutch municipalities have introduced these ZEZ plans as “milieu zones”.
Businesses may apply for grants of up to 5,000 euros to ease the transition, but Albert Heijn makes no mention of funding in the brief announcement but does refer to the above zones,
In terms of e-mobility, Albert Heijn has already been forging partnerships with EV charging companies to install charge points at their stores for customers, however.
For charging the growing in-house fleet of trucks and vans, the company says, “proper planning of journeys, charging times and locations will ensure that fully electric supplies and deliveries can be made in the four major city centres.” How remains to be seen.
The fleet in the Hague is up for decarbonisation in late 2022, followed by Rotterdam (Q1 23) and Utrecht and Amsterdam in the second half of 2023.
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