Tesco has become the the first UK supermarket to use battery-powered delivery lories in a bid to reduce its carbon footprint.
According to the BBC, the Big 4 grocer announced this move as the “start of us learning how to do electric trucks” as all new UK HGVs need to be zero-emission by 2040.
Tesco is the only major UK grocer to use fully-electric articulated trucks and it comes after research showed battery-powered HGVs can compete with diesel lorries.
“We as a business have set ourselves some challenging targets to get its carbon zero by 2035 and being involved in this being the first to introduce an electric HGVs is part of that journey,” Tesco representative John Steventon said to the BBC.
“The fleet will be over 2,000 trucks that will have to find a solution to get to carbon neutral.”
READ MORE: Tesco to roll out UK’s first commercial use of fully electric HGVs
The grocer currently has two 37-tonne DAF lorries, running on batteries transporting food and goods from the outskirts of Cardiff to near Newport, about 18 miles away.
With a range of about 100 miles, the current generation of electric lorries was not the solution for long-distance journeys.
Steventon added: “But this is the start of us learning how to do electric trucks with a view to rolling that out further.”
The news comes after Tesco started using electric vehicles for its home delivery service and has pledged that it will be “fully electrified by 2028”
“We are showing the public, our competitors and our customers that we can deliver with low noise-polluting vehicles and no tailpipe emissions,” Steventon added.
“We hope, as a business, we have ordered our last diesel trucks.”
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