On August 28th Amazon announced they will be purchasing 1,800 electric delivery vans from the European company, Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz. This deal comes two years after Amazon had agreed to buy 20,000 fueled Mercedes Sprinter vans to support its package delivery service in the U.S.
Amazon previously committed to buying 100,000 custom-built electric vans from Rivian Automotive Inc. The purchase from Mercedes-Benz is a statement from Amazon, which makes things clear that they aren’t tied to one producer and will most likely seek environmentally friendly vehicles from other auto manufacturers as well.
Amazon’s ambitious goal of becoming a net-zero emitter of carbon by 2040, is part of The Climate Pledge. “The Climate Pledge was founded on September 19, 2019 by Amazon and Global Optimism. It calls on signatories to be net-zero carbon across their business by 2040.” (www.theclimatepledge.com). Companies that sign The Climate Pledge agree to regular reporting, carbon elimination and credible offsets.
Amazon’s purchase of 1,800 electrics vans from Mercedes-Benz comes shortly after the company joined The Climate Pledge. Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO says, “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.” According to Manufacturing Global, Mercedes is already making progress. The auto manufacturer plans to have five fully electric models and over 20 plug-in hybrids by the end of 2020.
Amazon isn’t the only logistics company who is going green with electric vehicles. The U.S. Postal Service, UPS and FedEx are all moving towards electric vans or trucks.
https://www.ttnews.com/articles/amazon-buys-1800-electric-mercedes-vans-latest-green-effort
https://www.theclimatepledge.com/
https://www.greenbiz.com/article/amazon-hands-mercedes-benz-its-biggest-electric-vehicle-order-date