Volvo Trucks North America has announced that Coca-Cola Canada Bottling Limited (Coke Canada Bottling) will acquire six Volvo VNR Electric trucks as part of a pilot program to service their ‘Red Fleet’ customer delivery routes in the Greater Montreal Area.
This marks the first time the beverage distributor’s fleet of 650 heavy-duty vehicles will include Class 8 battery-electric trucks to service customers throughout the region. Coke Canada Bottling is the first Canadian food and beverage manufacturer to use zero-tailpipe emission trucks, and all six Volvo VNR Electric trucks will be delivered throughout 2023.
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Coke Canada Bottling’s environmental sustainability action plan, ‘Toward a Better Future Together,’ aims to reduce carbon emissions from direct sources and supplied energy by 46.2% by 2030. The addition of the 6×4 Volvo VNR Electric trucks will contribute towards this goal.
The company is taking action on fuel efficiencies in their fleet through electrification and the usage of alternative fuel sources. It 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 C02.
Volvo Trucks hosted a Demo Day on April 13 at Coke Canada Bottling’s Montreal distribution center for delivery drivers to test drive the new battery-electric trucks. Participants learned ways to optimize the Volvo VNR Electric’s range, such as leveraging regenerative braking benefits to add power back to the battery.
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Coke Canada Bottling is installing three 150 kW DC chargers with nine dispensers at its Montreal distribution center to support charging its battery-electric fleet. The charging infrastructure is anticipated to be complete in June 2023. The company utilized federal and provincial incentives (Écocamionnage and the iMHZEV programs) for Heavy-Duty Zero-Emission Vehicles funding to offset the cost of the six Volvo VNR Electric trucks.
