From this week, Sainsbury’s latest recruit will be sparking into action – Evie, the zero emission electric van will be on the roads delivering online grocery orders to customers across central and east London.
100% electric Evie will be 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 through the retailer’s groceries online website. The trial demonstrates Sainsbury’s mission to drive innovation throughout its business in order to best serve customers whenever and wherever they do their shopping.
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 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 re-charging 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.
Clodagh Moriarty, Sainsbury’s Group Chief Digital Officer, 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.”
Last year, Sainsbury’s was named the UK’s greenest supermarket after a study by Engaged Tracking found the retailer to be the least polluting of all UK supermarkets. Sainsbury’s is committed to reducing absolute carbon emissions by 30% and relative emissions by 65% between 2005 and 2020.
In 2017/18, and following the introduction of a number of new initiatives, the business recorded reductions of 24% absolute and 50% relative emissions.