Amazon wants a fleet of electric trucks in Germany. And it will build its own infrastructure

The calendar is clear, and tight. Amazon has been marked the goal to equip itself with a fleet of vehicles that is more respectful of the environment and achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040, which will allow it to be a decade ahead of the international goal set three years ago in Paris. To achieve this, he has decided to renew his fleet of vans and trucks, betting on the electric model. And —what is just as key— to equip itself with its own charging infrastructure.

Germany leaves a good example.

The commitment to electric trucks. That is the objective that Amazon has just set its sights on Germany. The multinational has decided to launch its first electric heavy duty vehicles (eHGVs) in the country at the end of the year, trucks manufactured by Volvo Trucks and that it will use to transport goods between Dortmund and Dusseldorf. His calculations are that the 20 trucks travel more than a million kilometers a year powered by electricity instead of diesel fuel.

…And own infrastructure. To offer the service, Amazon has also decided to fix ten fast chargers – “the best in its class”, it says – in its facilities in Germany. “The electric trucks will use 360 ​​kW charging points, capable of charging 40-tonne vehicles in less than two hours,” details the multinational, which puffs out its chest and assures that it already has more than 1,200 electric delivery vans in Germany and in 2021 it delivered more than 40 million packages in the country with these vehicles or electric bikes. “And the number will increase.”

Going for the goal of 1,500. Shortly after announcing its first trucks in Germany, the company presented a bigger plan with data that already point to the whole of its European fleet. What numbers are marked? Well, reach at least 10,000 electric delivery vans and 1,500 eHGVs. With this purpose and the objective of “further electrifying and decarbonizing” its transport network in Europe, it ensures that it will invest more than one billion euros over the next five years.

The firm wants to reach its goal of reaching 10,000 electric vans – it now runs more than 3,000 – in 2025; for the 1,500 eHGV he speaks of “the next few years”. Apart from the 20 that it has just announced in Germany, it has five already circulating in the United Kingdom. Your plan comes with an investment in “thousands of chargers” in its European facilities and “hundreds” that allow fast charging and have the vehicles ready in around two hours.

When infrastructure is born from companies. That Amazon influences its commitment to electric trucks and, above all, the effort to equip itself with its own infrastructure to supply them is not by chance. [La compañía subraya](C:\Users\PC PREGO\Desktop\Textos\regrets) that the scarcity of refueling points is a handicap that is not facilitating the transition: “eHGVs are a promising technology, but the production and availability of charging infrastructure They are limited.” Faced with this scenario, the company has chosen to make a move and equip itself with its own network of refueling points.

the backdrop. A recent report by ACEA, an association that brings together car manufacturers at a European level, stresses that the recharging infrastructure for electric cars is far from the data that we should handle if we want to achieve the decarbonisation objectives. With ACEA data in hand, disclosed just a few months ago, it would be necessary to have 6.8 million charging points in Europe in 2030. To achieve this, he calculates that it would be necessary to install 14,000 public charging points every week, far from the rate we are at.

Curiously, Germany is not the country with the worst data in the comparisons. ACEA studies They do not leave Spain standing too well, with 1.6 chargers every 100 kilometers; far from the data of the Netherlands, with 64.3, Luxembourg, with 57.9, or Germany itself, with 25.8.

The commitment to the electric truck. As Amazon points out, the other big handicap is that the current production of eHGV is also “limited”. The truth is that its potential has already attracted large multinationals beyond Tesla and its Tesla Semi, which Musk’s company will begin to deliver before the end of the year. Mercedes presented at the Hannover International Motor Show your eActros LonHaul —with an autonomy range of about 500 kilometers— and other large companies, such as Scania or Volvo Trucks, the one chosen by Amazon in Germany.

The Gothenburg-based truck manufacturer explains that the vehicles it will deliver to Amazon are Volvo FH Electric, cargo and fully electric models with a battery capacity of 540 kWh and up to 300 km of autonomy, although the multinational apostille that with a recharge, for example at lunchtime, it can cover 500 km in a working day.

go for the half mile. That is one of the great goals, as recognized by the e-commerce giant: to eliminate CO2 emissions in such a key phase for its logistics as the transport of goods between warehouses, known as “half mile”. “Amazon is committed to decarbonizing its fleet, and the middle mile is a notoriously difficult sector to reduce,” Andreas Marschner points out, vice president of transport services in Europe in Europe. Volvo estimates that heavy and commercial vehicles cause 36% of emissions of national transport in Germany, which, he stresses, shows the importance of decarbonising the sector.

Images: Volvo Trucks