Albert Heijn aims to double the number of kilometres driven with electric vehicles this year, and to serve all its stores and customers in Belgium and the Netherlands emission-free by 2030. The retailer also makes its sustainably generated energy available to strategic partners.
Largest electric carrier in the Netherlands
All of Albert Heijn’s EVs drove a total of 2.5 million kilometres last year, a number that will double this year, the company said at the opening of a new charging station at its distribution centre in Pijnacker. Today, the retailer already serves more than 200 stores and thousands of customers every week with electric trucks or vans.
In total, Albert Heijn now has ten charging hubs for trucks and delivery vans across the Netherlands. The fleet is expanding: from 74 electric trucks now to a hundred later in the year and 180 in 2025. The retailer also already uses more than 250 electric delivery buses and calls itself the largest electric carrier in the Netherlands.
The Ahold Delhaize subsidiary claims to be the first European retailer that will also make sustainably generated energy available to strategic partners – suppliers of fresh produce. That green power comes from a wind farm on the North Sea, Ecowende. The company is also investing in its own energy generation, with 50,000 solar panels already in operation.