Several supermarkets are going to experiment with electric distribution. VDL, among others, is going to play an important role in the living labs. For example, it is developing a smaller e-truck for Picnic, the fast-growing delivery supermarket, with the aim of mass producing it in a new Dutch factory.
Jumbo and Albert Heijn are also setting up living labs for emission-free distribution. VDL will supply the electric tractor plus the charging infrastructure for Jumbo's trial garden. AH will experiment with two Daf hybrids, three fully electric trucks from VDL and charging technology from Heliox. The supermarkets will receive subsidies for their projects, which fall under The projects are among the approved applications the Demonstration Scheme for Climate Technologies and Innovations (DKTI) in Transport.
Picnic wants to develop an emission-free truck for urban distribution with its DKTI project. This is a light commercial vehicle in the N1 category, with a maximum mass of 3,500 kg. In this, VDL Steelweld is responsible for engineering the vehicle platform and in the future possible scaling up to production. It collaborates with TNO, which provides the specifications, software architecture and energy planning. Following the project, VDL has plans to eventually build a new Dutch factory where tens of thousands of emission-free distribution cars can be built. Half of these will be destined for export.
Living lab
VDL is also involved in Jumbo's electric driving project. The supermarket is setting up a DKTI trial garden with a radius of fifty kilometres around its distribution centre in Veghel. VDL will supply a fully electric tractor and associated charging infrastructure for this. The supermarket chain will also provide its own energy with local solar panels and buffer capacity. Jumbo ultimately expects to save 18644 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.
AH has set itself the goal of supplying all its shops, including Etos and Gall & Gall, cleanly and quietly by 2025. In its DKTI project, it is setting up two pilots from its Zaandam distribution centre, in Amsterdam and in the Amsterdam-Utrecht region. In one trial area, transporter Peter Appel will drive two hybrid Dafs; for the other, VDL will supply two electric tractors to Simon Loos and one to Peter Appel. Heliox is providing the charging infrastructure and TNO is monitoring the project and analysing the results.
Transport
Tinie Manders and DHL are going to trial emission-free driving between Veldhoven and EIndhoven Airport in a smaller DKTI project. The family business is also involved in pilot projects to make waste collection more environmentally friendly and road transport in general more sustainable. Fellow e-truck manufacturer Emoss is also taking part in the latter project. The Oosterhout-based company is also participating in a pilot project for electric courier services and in the development of an electric concrete mixer and range-extenders for e-trucks and for a hydrogen-powered rubbish truck.
Among the rest of 29 granted applications are more hydrogen projects. For instance, subsidies will go to ten new hydrogen filling stations: in Amsterdam, Arnhem, Breda, The Hague, Groningen, Oude Tonge, Pesse, Rotterdam, Schiphol and Utrecht. Currently, the Netherlands has only a handful of such stations, including in Arnhem, Delfzijl, Helmond and Rhoon. There will also be a DKTI test site with four hydrogen-polluting trucks and an associated filling station in Amsterdam.
The DKTI Transport is an important step towards achieving the agreements of the Energy Agreement. The scheme runs until 2021. For 2017/2018, a total of almost 17 million euros was available. Experimental developments receive a maximum subsidy of two million, of which one million is for investment in infrastructure for alternative fuels. Experimental developments receive a maximum of half a million.
Source: Mechatronics & Mechanical Engineering
Photo: VDL
