Volvo Trucks North America will deliver six Volvo VNR Electric trucks to Coca-Cola Canada Bottling Limited, as part of a pilot programme to service its ‘Red Fleet’ customer delivery routes throughout the Greater Montreal Area.
The six trucks are the first Class 8 battery-electric trucks in the beverage distributor’s fleet of 650 heavy-duty vehicles to service customers throughout the region.
The move makes Coke Canada Bottling the first Canadian food and beverage manufacturer to use zero-tailpipe emission trucks.
All six Volvo VNR Electric trucks will be delivered throughout 2023.
The battery-electric fleet features a six-battery configuration that can cover up to 440km on a single charge, as the trucks make several daily round trips of 150km from the company’s distribution centre in Montreal to customer locations.
As part of Coke Canada Bottling’s Toward a Better Future Together environmental sustainability action plan, the 6×4 Volvo VNR Electric trucks will contribute to the company’s goal of reducing carbon emissions from direct sources and supplied energy by 46.2% by 2030.
Coke Canada Bottling currently has several light-duty electric service vehicles in the Greater Montreal Area and uses B20 biofuels on all trucks newer than 2012. To date, these initiatives have led to a savings of more than 1500 tonnes of CO2.
To support charging its battery-electric fleet, Coke Canada Bottling is also installing three 150kW DC chargers with nine dispensers at its Montreal distribution centre. The charging infrastructure is anticipated to be complete in June 2023.
