Albert Heijn expands all-electric deliveries in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, grocery chain Albert Heijn will now supply its centres in Amsterdam and Utrecht with fully electric transport. The two cities join The Hague and Rotterdam, where the grocery chain already makes all deliveries with fully electric vehicles, while further city centres are to follow in 2024.

While the grocery chain has not yet revealed which vehicles will be used for its all-electric operations in the two new locations, the latest press release shows a Mercedes eActros in Amsterdam. These fully electric trucks have been customer tests since 2020. The company uses vans with box bodies based on a Toyota Proace Electric and Ford E-Transit will be on the road for end-customer deliveries.

At the start of all-electric deliveries in The Hague in the summer of 2022, a press photo showed various vehicles ranging from electric light trucks to a Fiat Ducato with a box body and larger distribution trucks from DAF and Mercedes-Benz.

The grocery chain is focusing firstly on those zero-emission zones that Dutch cities will introduce from 2025 onwards to improve air quality. Legislation now stipulates that from 2030 onwards, only emission-free delivery cars and trucks will be allowed to drive through city centres. So far, 14 Dutch municipalities have introduced these ZEZ plans as “milieu zones”.

Albert Heijn currently supplies 150 stores with electric vehicles every day. This figure will rise to more than 200 by the end of 2023, for which Albert Heijn is investing heavily in fast charging stations.

Charging stations are also being installed at Albert Heijn stores thanks to cooperation with Eneco eMobility to install electric charging stations which began last year.

nieuws.ah.nl (in Dutch)