VNR Electric trucks to Coke’s fleet, as part of a pilot program to service their iconic ‘Red Fleet’ customer delivery routes throughout the Greater Montreal Area.
The new addition of the Volvo VNR Electric trucks it is the first Class 8 battery-electric trucks in the beverage distributor’s fleet of 650 heavy-duty vehicles to service customers throughout the Montreal region. Coke Canada Bottling is the first Canadian food and beverage manufacturer to use zero-tailpipe emission trucks and all six Volvo VNR Electric trucks will be delivered throughout 2023.
Coke Canada Bottling’s Toward a Better Future Together environmental sustainability action plan, the 6×4 Volvo VNR Electric trucks will help Coke to reach their goal of reducing carbon emissions from direct sources and supplied energy by 46.2% by 2030. Coke Canada Bottling is going forward and trying to create better source of fuel in their fleet for a better tomorrow. Coke Canada Bottling has many light-duty electric trucks in the Greater Montreal Area and uses B20 biofuels on all trucks newer than 2012. To date this has led to a savings of more than 1500 tonnes of C02. Also, in addition to Coke’s new battery-electric fleet features a six-battery configuration that can cover up to 440 km (275 miles) on a single charge, as the trucks make several daily round trips of 150 km (93 miles) from the company distribution center in Montreal to customer locations. To support charging its battery-electric fleet, Coke Canada Bottling has also installed three 150 kW DC chargers with nine dispensers at its Montreal distribution center. The charging centers are to be complete in June 2023
The big Demo Day was held on April 13 at Coke Canada Bottling in Montreal distribution center for delivery drivers to test drive the new battery-electric trucks. During the exciting day the delivery personnel learned important ways to adjust to the Volvo VNR Electric’s range, such as leveraging regenerative braking benefits to add power back to the battery. (What does regenerative braking mean? – A battery-powered or a hybrid car, regenerative braking converts kinetic energy into chemical energy that’s stored in the battery to be used to power the vehicle. Like any other battery)
Peter Voorhoeve, President, Volvo Trucks North America addressed the press saying, “It was an excellent opportunity to mark this clean fleet milestone during Earth Month with Coke Canada’s employees and it is a tremendous honor to partner with them as they continue their electromobility transition.”
“Our ‘Red Fleet’ is iconic on the roads of Canada and, we want to strive to become the leading beverage partner in Canada, we are extremely proud to partner with Volvo Trucks to be the first Canadian food and beverage manufacturer to use battery-electric trucks,” says Todd Parsons, Chief Executive Officer at Coca-Cola Canada Bottling Limited.
Coke Canada Bottling utilized federal and provincial incentives (Écocamionnage and the iMHZEV programs) for Heavy-Duty Zero-Emission Vehicles funding to offset the cost of the six Volvo VNR Electric trucks.
To learn more about Volvo Trucks North America and the Volvo VNR Electric, visit volvotrucks.us/trucks/vnr-electric. To learn more about Coke Canada Bottling’s environmental sustainability action plan, please visit CokeCanada.com/sustainability.
