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Sainsbury’s latest recruit sparked into action last week. Evie, the zero emission electric van, is on the roads delivering online grocery orders to customers across central and east London.
The retailer claims 100% electric Evie is the first of her kind making home deliveries for a UK supermarket, dropping off up to 30 orders a day to customers who have shopped via its website.
Producing zero emissions, Evie will be put to the test to see whether the technology could be an efficient way of delivering groceries to customers in busy cities.
With an expected range of around 80 miles on a single charge – and the capacity to carry the same weight as a diesel vehicle – the van will be making deliveries across London from Sainsbury’s online fulfilment centre in Bromley-by-Bow and recharging overnight.
Evie will be joined by Stevie the electric van in May, who will also take on delivery duties for customers across central and east London. If successful, the duo could be joined by additional electric vans in other areas served by Sainsbury’s Online.
In April 2018, Sainsbury’s became the first UK grocery retailer to deliver online grocery orders via electric cargo bike. A fleet of five bikes, producing zero emissions and no noise pollution, delivered up to 100 online orders a day to customers across south London from the Streatham Common store.
Sainsbury’s group chief digital officer Clodagh Moriarty said: “We’re delighted to welcome Evie to the team and lead the charge in putting the latest electric van technology to the test for grocery deliveries. We’re always looking at how we can use the latest innovations to best serve our customers and this trial will help us explore how we can deliver Sainsbury’s groceries in a more environmentally-friendly way.”
The chain is committed to reducing absolute carbon emissions by 30% and relative emissions by 65% between 2005 and 2020. In 2017/18, following the introduction of a number of new initiatives, the business recorded reductions of 24% absolute and 50% relative emissions.
