Europa take a Renault Trucks electric 18-tonner on trial from Vertellus

Europa Road, the road freight division of Europa Worldwide Group, has taken delivery of its first electric truck from new contract hire business, Vertellus.

The truck arrives as part of Vertellus’ 3-month EV Discovery Programme with the Renault Trucks E-Tech 18-tonner being used at Europa Road’s £30million groupage 1hub in Dartford.

The trial will see Europa Road use its first electric vehicle to travel between the company’s expanding network of local branches, as well as gain valuable insight into making its future fleets more sustainable.

Operations director at Europa Worldwide Group, Dan Cook, said: “It’s been highlighted by the World Economic Forum that shipment transportation accounts for 24% of net carbon emissions and it has therefore been a long-held ambition of Europa’s to adopt technologies that will help reduce our carbon emissions.

“Europa Road’s participation in Vertellus’ EV Discovery Programme marks the start of our transition to becoming a more sustainable logistics operator. The ‘try-before-you-buy’ programme gives us an opportunity to explore the strengths and limits of this technology, identifying where it can be most useful to us and will also provide us with knowledge on how we can adopt similar technologies into our future fleets, both domestic and international.”

The three-month trail by Vertellus and its East Midlands-based partner, RH Commercial Vehicles, is based on usage, with customers contracting a minimum of 3,000kWh per month. This is the equivalent of around 40,000km per annum.

Nigel Baxter, MD of Vertellus, said: “We are very proud to announce this major milestone in our company’s history and believe that it is another significant step in further assisting the UK transportation sector’s goal of reaching its net-zero emission targets.

“The EV Discovery Programme was created to offer operators with a unique opportunity to better understand how electric vehicles could be utilised within the business and we are delighted that our first customer is one of the most forward-thinking logistics operators in the UK. We look forward to helping the team at Europa Road further enhance the company’s decarbonisation journey.” 

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