BALTIMORE — After the recent announcement that A.P. Moller-Maersk (Maersk) plans to order 110 additional Volvo VNR Electric Class 8 trucks to its North American fleet, increasing its total commitment to 126 trucks, Maersk officials said that this is just the beginning.
Maersk expects to deploy 450 electric trucks in North America from various manufacturers in 2022-23, according to Narin Phol, regional managing director for Maersk North America.
Meanwhile, the Volvo electric trucks will be delivered by the end of Q1 2023 to support increased demand from customers, according to company officials.
“Our customers are looking for tangible actions on sustainable supply chains – not just conceptual,” a Maersk news release stated.
“With this in mind, we move decisively towards building an end-to-end, landside decarbonization offering for our customers – in line with our target to extend Maersk net-zero efforts to all transport modes in our global operation. These investments in our North America network will generate valuable experience for the continued journey towards similar customer offerings across the globe.”
Vincent Clerc, CEO of Ocean and Logistics at Maersk, said that the new order builds on the August 2021 order of 16 Volvo VNR Electric trucks as part of Maersk’s Environment Social Governance (ESG) strategy to decarbonize logistics.
“The strategy is a key driver for zero carbon operations in trucking and an important part of Maersk’s goal of enterprise-wide, carbon neutral operations by 2040 with significant steps to be taken by 2030,” Clerc said. “Today’s order reflects the company’s responsible procurement efforts to integrate ESG into Maersk business activities.”
Maersk executives said that their long-term goal in North America is to “move toward a fully electric trucking fleet to offer customers an environmentally-friendly alternative for short-haul trucking. We recognize the electric vehicle technology is in the early stages and we’re committed to working closely with our partners to pilot and optimize the technology to scale it across our operations.”
The Volvo electric trucks will be used in Southern California for short-haul warehouse and distribution center operations. Electric charging infrastructure will be installed in April-May 2022 and operational in June 2022, the company said.
Volvo Trucks, in partnership with our dealer TEC Equipment, will collaborate with Maersk on its fleet sustainability goals and commends the organization’s continued scaled investments in electromobility solutions.
“Incredibly, this is the second time in less than a year that Volvo Trucks has had the opportunity to announce that a Maersk Company has placed the largest order of Volvo VNR Electrics to date, which underscores their organization’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint,” said Peter Voorhoeve, president of Volvo Trucks North America.
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