Thursday 30 July 2020

Waitrose and John Lewis unveil plan to switch to electric home deliveries

 

Retail brands Waitrose and John Lewis have announced plans to increase the use of electric vans for home deliveries in a bid to speed up their journey towards the end of fossil fuels across their entire transport fleet by 2030.

Starting with a small scale trial in which three electric vans, will replace three diesel vehicles the retailer hopes to also cut noise pollution.

The John Lewis Partnership will use two new designs of vehicle for its Waitrose food deliveries and for smaller John Lewis deliveries, saving more than 20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, equivalent to the carbon footprint produced by 2,500 households.

The electric van rollout follows the retailer’s recent announcement that it is building a dedicated biomethane gas filling station to enable its largest heavy goods vehicles to use a low carbon alternative to diesel.

This is estimated to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80%, with each truck saving more than 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.

Justin Laney, Partner & General Manager of Central Transport at the John Lewis Partnership, said: "Our new electric vans are an ideal solution for home deliveries. The innovative design means they’re more efficient, but also respectful to the environment and the growing number of neighbourhoods in which we deliver.”

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