Amazon is adding more than 1,800 Mercedes-Benz electric vans to its delivery fleet in Europe this year – marking the largest electric vehicle commitment for Mercedes-Benz Vans to date.
The vehicles will be available to Amazon’s Delivery Service Partners and will begin making deliveries to customers in 2020, helping to save thousands of metric tons of carbon.
The order will include more than 1,200 units of the newly launched eSprinter large electric van as well as 600 eVito midsize electric vans, particularly aimed at Delivery Service Partners in urban areas.
The vehicles join Amazon’s growing electric fleet and will be powered in the future by clean energy. The firm has committed to run on 100% renewable energy by 2025.
“I am delighted that we are further intensifying our long-standing partnership with Amazon and working together on the battery-electric future of transportation,” said Marcus Breitschwerdt, head of Mercedes-Benz Vans. “With the eVito and the eSprinter, we have electric vehicles in our portfolio, which are ideally suited for the requirements of the courier-, express- and parcel-service industry for goods delivery on the so-called ‘last mile’ in terms of their equipment and range. They show that local emission-free driving, convincing performance, comfort and low operating costs can be combined perfectly.”
The agreement comes as Mercedes-Benz joins The Climate Pledge, which has been co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism, which calls on signatories to be net zero carbon across their businesses by 2040 – a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement goal of 2050.
“We welcome the bold leadership demonstrated by Mercedes-Benz by signing up to The Climate Pledge and committing to ambitious action to address climate change. We need continued innovation and partnership from auto manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz to decarbonize the transportation sector and tackle the climate crisis,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO.
Mercedes-Benz’s commitment to The Climate Pledge sees it ramp up its commitment to the ‘Ambition2039’ roadmap to CO2-neutral mobility. The company is evaluating ways to remove carbon from its entire value chain, from development to the supplier network, from its own production to the electrification of products and beyond, as well as to ensuring renewable energies for the use phase of electric vehicles.
Its goal is to have a CO2-neutral fleet of new cars in less than 20 years and its work to date means that by the end of this year, the vehicle portfolio will comprise five fully electric models and more than 20 plug-in hybrids.
