Amazon said on Friday it has ordered 1,800 electric vans from Mercedes-Benz to form part of its European delivery fleet, as the company moves toward becoming carbon-neutral by 2040.
Most of the vehicles are to enter service this year, the company said, adding that 1,200 of the vehicles are the larger eSprinter models, with the remaining 600 being eVitos.
The deal is Mercedes-Benz’s largest electric vehicle order to date, with Amazon saying it intends to use 800 of the vans in Germany and 500 in the UK
However, Amazon recently placed a much larger order of 100,000 electric delivery vans from Rivian Automotive, a Califorina-based start-up in which it has invested heavily.
Amazon’s electric vehicle investments are part of its commitment to The Climate Pledge, an initiative it started last year whose signatories promise to become carbon-neutral by 2040, a decade ahead of the deadline set by the Paris climate agreement.
Mercedes-Benz joined the organisation on Friday, which Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos said showed “bold leadership”.
“We need continued innovation and partnership from auto manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz to decarbonise the transportation sector and tackle the climate crisis,” Bezos said.
The carmaker has previously said it wants to have a carbon-neutral fleet by 2039.
He said the company’s latest electric vehicle order was part of a “journey to build the most sustainable transportation fleet in the world”.
General-purpose delivery firms are also investing in electric vehicles, with UPS ordering 10,000 electric vans from UK start-up Arrival at the beginning of the year.
Mercedes-Benz competitors are working on electric vehicles, with Ford planning an all-electric Transit van for the North American market in 2022 and General Motors planning to start production of an electric van in late 2021.
Amazon has seen soaring demand during the coronavirus pandemic, as customers turn to online services en masse.
The company’s shares have risen 84 percent this year so far, with Amazon founder Bezos seeing his fortune rise to more than $200 billion (£150bn) last week.
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