It’s all very well truckmakers designing and producing battery electric vehicles, but they need to actually sell a few, otherwise it’s just an exercise in R&D.
It seems that Renault have got the ball rolling in the UK, despite the numbers involved not setting the world alight at this stage.
16 Tonne Electric Bread Van
Warburtons, the UK’s largest bakery brand, is introducing the first Renault Trucks D Z.E. 16t. Equipped with box body with rear side door and tail lift by PPS Commercials, this distribution model will join Warburtons secondary bread fleet carrying around six tonnes of bread and bakery products to multiple locations around London using only battery power and emitting no tailpipe emissions.
26-tonne Electric Waste Collector
SUEZ recycling and recovery UK (SUEZ), a world leader in water and waste, is committed to the smart and sustainable management of resources and this now extends to the introduction of the first fully electric Renault Trucks D Wide Z.E. 26t refuse vehicle to the UK. As Bristol is one of the UK cities with the highest environmental ambitions, SUEZ will use the D Wide Z.E. to collect commercial waste from city centre locations for processing at the company’s recycling and reprocessing site, reducing the city’s carbon footprint in multiple ways.
Carlos Rodrigues, Managing Director of Renault Trucks UK and Ireland, states: “Renault Trucks is delighted to announce the introduction of our first two medium duty D Z.E. vehicles with these two outstanding companies. Warburtons and SUEZ are not only household names and leaders in their respective sectors, but leaders in the sustainability journey which we must all embrace. We will share more of Renault Trucks’ sustainability commitments later in the year, but we are hugely excited to be announcing the sales of these first two fully electric vehicles today, and look forward to many other organisations joining us in the coming months.”
Both the D Z.E. for Warburtons and the D Wide Z.E. for SUEZ are planned to begin operations later in 2020. More information will be shared as each vehicle enters service.
With a comprehensive range of electric trucks from 3.1 to 26 tonnes, Renault Trucks meets both current and future requirements of professionals operating in urban environments. These vehicles are ideally suited to waste collection and distribution operations, enabling low noise rounds at unconventional hours while preserving quality of life for local residents. Renault Trucks D and D Wide Z.E. are produced at the manufacturer’s plant in Blainville-sur-Orne (Calvados, France).