Amazon’s electric delivery trucks, which the retail giant developed in cooperation with Rivian, are becoming common sights in many parts of the US. Now the company is adding fifty Class 8 EVs to its drayage fleet in Southern California.
Amazon’s Volvo VNR Electric tractors will haul both cargo containers and customer package loads in Amazon’s first- and middle-mile operations. They’ve already started hitting the road at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and a dozen are expected to be in service by the end of the year.
The Volvo VNR Electric has a range of up to 275 miles, and a gross combined vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 82,000 pounds. Safety features include active collision mitigation, blind spot detection, lane departure warning, lane keeping assist and adaptive cruise control.
As Electrek’s Jo Borrás notes, Amazon is giving itself a pat on the back for deploying the emissions-reducing electric trucks, but in fact the company has little choice—thanks to California’s new Advanced Clean Fleets regulation, deploying new ICE trucks in drayage applications will effectively be banned soon. (Enforcement of the regulation is currently on hold pending a decision from the EPA, but this is expected to be resolved within a year.)
“We’re proud to launch our largest fleet of electric heavy-duty vehicles yet in California,” said Udit Madan, VP of Worldwide Amazon Operations. “Heavy-duty trucking is a particularly difficult area to decarbonize, which makes us all the more excited to have these vehicles on the road today. We’ll use what we learn from deploying these vehicles as we continue to identify and invest in solutions to reduce emissions in our transportation network.”
Source: Electrek
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