Tesco has unveiled its 500th electric van, with the supermarket announcing 7,500 tonnes of carbon savings since it introduced its first electric delivery van in 2020.
The milestone van will go into service at the supermarket’s Sheffield Extra store, making the store the first in Yorkshire to have a fully electric fleet.
In total more than 30 Tesco stores and centres are now operating fully electric home delivery vans across the UK, helping to improve air quality in urban areas and reduce emissions. As part of its ambition to become carbon neutral in the UK by 2035, the grocer has committed to becoming fully electric by the end of 2030.
It comes as other retailers, including Waitrose, Asda and Sainsbury’s have looked to electric vehicles to try and reduce their emissions.
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Tesco CEO Jason Tarry said: “The delivery of our 500th EV home delivery van to our Sheffield Extra store is an important landmark as we move towards a fully electric fleet across the UK by 2030.
“Marking this change will reduce our carbon emissions as a business, improve the air quality for the communities we serve in Sheffield, and help us reach our commitment to be carbon neutral in our own operations by 2035.”
MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough Gill Furniss said: “It’s great to see Sheffield have a fully electric dotcom fleet – this is brilliant for the local community. We know moving to electric vehicles can contribute towards improved air quality and it’s great to see retailers making investments like this in Sheffield”.
Decarbonisation minister Jesse Norman said: “Electric vehicles are a key part of the UK’s move to a green growth economy. It is great to see businesses like Tesco embrace this technology to help make supermarket deliveries more sustainable”.
“For its part the Government has supported over 40,000 electric vans and HGVs across the UK through the Plug-In-Van grant, supporting businesses and individuals to decarbonise”.
