Lisa Bertlein
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Amazon.com on Tuesday unveiled the first of a dozen large electric Volvo (OTC:) rigs it plans to use this year to handle cargo from the nation’s busiest container seaport in Southern California.
The e-commerce giant already operates eight of these semi-trailers at the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex, where every so-called truck must be zero-emission by 2035.
This is the first deployment for Amazon (NASDAQ:), which is expanding its vehicle electrification projects from ocean ports to customers’ doors. These efforts are vital to the company’s ambition to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.
Currently, just over 1% of the 23,761 trucks servicing the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex are zero-emission vehicles, including 201 electric units, said Port of Long Beach spokesman Lee Peterson.
“Heavy freight transportation is particularly challenging to decarbonize,” said Udit Madan, Amazon’s vice president of global operations.
Since 2022, the company has deployed more than 13,500 Rivian (NASDAQ:) electric cargo vans across the country. The transition to electric semi-trailers will be more challenging because they carry heavier loads and their batteries require more intensive charging infrastructure.
“There is no one-size-fits-all scenario,” said Adam Baker, vice president of global logistics at Amazon. The company is currently collecting battery performance data that will help determine how many trucks will be needed.
Electric truck maker Amazon will continue to work with the company and JAB Hunt, which is providing drivers for the rigs, throughout the deployment process, said Keith Brandis, vice president of partnerships and system solutions for Volvo Trucks North America.
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“The charging infrastructure is a long pole in a tent. We have to do this right,” Brandis said.
Ports, private companies and truck owners are rushing to build heavy-duty chargers to support the transition to zero-emission vehicles.
In the near future, Amazon’s electric port trucks will be charged at a remote facility run by Forum Mobility, a startup that counts the Amazon Climate Pledge fund as an early investor.
Forum Mobility broke ground this week on a high-speed charging station at the Port of Long Beach that can handle 44 trucks at a time. Amazon is the site’s first customer, which will also be open to other shippers, Forum Mobility CEO Matt Leduc said.