AB InBev is entering into a partnership with Einride. The Belgian beer brewery will have an all-electric fleet of trucks for heavy transport between Brussels and Leuven. This is expected to reduce AB InBev's CO2 emissions by 500 tonnes annually.
Who is Einride?
Einride is a Swedish company specialising in electric and self-driving vehicles. These vehicles are called 'Einride Pods'. The pods do not have a cabin and do not accommodate a human driver. The vehicle therefore drives autonomously. However, a human professional always watches the ride. This attendant can intervene and take control of the vehicle if necessary.
The Swedish company will introduce the Einride Pod in spring 2017. The first full-scale prototype - the T-Pod - was presented by the company on 4 July the same year.
Already several partnerships
Since then, the company has been gaining momentum. For instance, the company entered into a partnership with Lidl in 2017 and with DB Schenker in 2018. The first commercial installation of an Einride Pod was realised in November 2018 in Jönköping, Sweden. Since May 2019, the vehicles have actually been making deliveries here. In doing so, the Einride Pods are allowed to propel at a speed of 5 kilometres per hour.
Maersk is also a customer of Einride; the company wants to deploy electric vehicles on US roads through Einride. The transport company ordered 300 so-called Class 8 trucks. These are the heaviest category of trucks allowed on the roads in the United States (US). The vehicles that Maersk will use were purchased by Einride from China's BYD, which manufactures the vehicles in the state of California.
"As we continue to expand our US operations and provide our end-to-end shipping solution at scale, it is essential to have an OEM partner who can partner with us in providing best-in-class electric vehicles," Niklas Reinedahl, general manager North-America at Einride, explained about this deal with the Chinese company. Using BYD's trucks, Einride aims to support customers with efficiently transporting goods electrically, cost-competitively and emission-free.
AB InBev also enters into collaboration with Einride
AB InBev will enter into a partnership with Einride from early 2023. In this way, the Belgian brewer aims to take the lead in the large-scale rollout of heavy electric transport in Belgium. The delivery of the electric trucks will take place in phases. In the first phase, AB InBev will commission six electric trucks from Einride on the route between Brussels and Leuven. The parties will also realise the associated charging infrastructure.
The brewery will deploy the electric trucks around Leuven and Brussels. By doing so, the company aims to support its goal of being climate neutral throughout its supply chains by 2040. Among other things, this means major changes to AB InBev's fleet of trucks.
Diesel trucks replaced by electric variants
"We will no longer purchase diesel trucks and will systematically replace every diesel truck that is written off with an electric variant. As we will start broad deployment of electric vehicles for city deliveries in Ghent, Brussels, Liège and Leuven next year, the partnership with Einride for medium-distance electric heavy transport is the next step in our "Green Logistics" strategy. If the environment in which we work becomes more sustainable, the quality of the natural ingredients to brew beer will also improve as a result," explains Philippe Seminck, AB InBev's Logistics Director for Benelux and France.
"Benelux is the beating heart of Europe and the place par excellence to bring about change across the European Union," says Robert Falck, CEO and founder of Einride. "Over the past decade, the EU has reduced greenhouse gas emissions in every sector, with the exception of the transport sector. There, emissions have only increased, with road freight transport remaining by far the biggest polluter. It is high time to take action to meet the target of halving emissions by 2030. With our leading technology, which has been electric from the start, we want to contribute to significant emissions reductions so that Europe can lead the global race to net zero."
Einride Saga
Einride is deploying a solution called Einride Saga to realise electric freight transport. This is a platform that, among other things, gives customers access to action-driven insights on KPIs around transport, energy use and performance. These include avoided CO2 emissions from the deployment of Einride Pods and actual CO2 emissions, as well as the number of electrically driven kilometres and percentage of electrically driven kilometres in fleets consisting of both electric vehicles and those with combustion engines. The data is available in real-time and supports companies in achieving their sustainability goals.
The Einride Saga platform also helps organisations manage their transports. For instance, the solution displays the entire network of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure in real-time. Any problems that occur on routes are thus immediately addressable. Saga also provides insight into individual trips. Does a ride unexpectedly arrive late? Then Saga accurately shows why and what actions you can take in response to the delay.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Photo: En Serio
