Dublin, Ireland: Irish food retailer and wholesaler, BWG Foods, has taken delivery of its first Volvo FE Electric.
The €400,000 investment in the Volvo electric truck is part of its efforts to more towards lowering its carbon footprint.
According to the wholesaler and retailer, which owns Spar, Londis, Mace, and XL brands, the 20 tonne rigid is the first electric heavy goods vehicle in operation in Ireland.
BWG Foods has allocated the new vehicle to inter depot deliveries in addition to nationwide store deliveries, using fast charging to increase the range.
Volvo dealer Irish Commercials provided the vehicle
BWG Foods has already added 10 new bio-methane powered tractors to test innovative low carbon technologies across the business’ distribution operations.
“The new HGV trucks are fuelled with bio-methane in place of traditional diesel fuel with the biogas being produced through the natural breakdown of food and sewage waste.
“We also contribute non-consumable food waste from our distribution operations to produce biogas fuel for its new biogas vehicles at the nearest biogas production site at Nurney in Kildare, making this a circular solution that is unique in Ireland.”
“This is the most significant development in terms of green transport in Ireland to-date.” the company said.
BWG also operates 18 compressed natural gas trucks with the ambition to migrate these to full biogas as soon as supply is available.
Simon Marriott, chief operations officer, BWG Foods (pictured above right) said, “We’re on a clear mission to significantly reduce the carbon intensity of BWG’s distribution operation, which is one of the very largest in the country, distributing over 25 million outbound cases per year.
“We very much see biogas as being a key solution for reducing transport related emissions, in conjunction with electric vehicles as technology develops for larger vehicles, and we are committed to investing significantly in continuing to grow our environmentally friendly distribution fleet over the coming years.”
Pictured above are Green Party MEP Ciáran Cuffe (left) with Simon Marriott, chief operations officer, BWG Foods.
