Monday 17 January 2022

UK’s Crown Estate and Volta Trucks partner for electric truck trial in London

Britain's Crown Estate has teamed up with Volta Trucks to trial electric trucks for deliveries into London as part of its ongoing commitment to reduce emissions throughout the West End.

Set to launch in summer 2022, the trial will see the all-electric Volta Zero bring deliveries to retailers in Regent Street, where the Crown Estate's portfolio spans 10 million square feet.

The Volta Zero is a purpose-built, 16-tonne electric vehicle (EV) with has a range of 95 – 125 miles, offering zero-emission deliveries between a single accessible consolidation centre in Regent Street and the stores and helping eliminate an estimated 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 by 2025.

Since 2008, Clipper Logistics has been operating the Regent Street delivery scheme, consolidating multiple individual goods delivery trips into fewer combined journeys, helping to tackle London’s traffic congestion, improving local air quality and supporting retailer efficiency.

Essa Al-Saleh, Chief Executive Officer of Volta Trucks said: “The full-electric Volta Zero is specifically designed for zero-emission urban distribution with exactly The Crown Estate and Clipper Logistics’ use case in mind. And with 8.6-tonnes of payload, it was created to consolidate deliveries and reduce congestion of smaller vehicles on city centre streets.”

Judith Everett, Executive Director for Purpose, Sustainability & Stakeholder at The Crown Estate added; “This partnership is another important step towards reducing congestion, improving air quality and making our streets safer and more accessible across the West End. It will be a win-win for us and our customers, helping support their deliveries and our joint sustainability ambitions.

“It builds on our continued work to trial and test to see what works best for everyone using our streets, now and in the future.”