The online retailer Amazon wants to use the first 20 heavy electric trucks in freight transport in Germany by the end of the year. The forty-ton truck will be supplied by Volvo and will be used from Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as both companies announced on Thursday. For Amazon, this is part of plans to reduce emissions from ever-growing delivery traffic. The company wants to be CO2-neutral by 2040. The group continues to grow rapidly: so far this year, Amazon has opened three new shipping centers in Germany.
So far, only a few trucks with electric drives are in use on German roads. Challenges for the manufacturers are the high weight of the batteries and the lower range compared to diesel engines. Volvo was quick with development and had started series production of electric 40-ton trucks in September. According to Volvo, the model delivered to Amazon has a range of 300 kilometers on one charge. The German manufacturers MAN and Daimler intend to launch production-ready electric heavy-duty trucks for long-distance transport by 2024. (dpa)