Woolworths New Zealand is targeting to convert all its home delivery trucks to electric-powered by 2030, as part of the supermarket chain’s sustainability commitment.

Under this plan, the supermarket chain will add about 300 trucks to New Zealand’s electric vehicle fleet over the next seven years.

Woolworths first introduced electric vehicles to its home delivery fleet in 2019 with support from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority.

The fleet conversion forms part of the supermarket chain’s commitment to reducing its overall operational transport emissions by around 60 per cent by 2030 from the current levels.

It also committed to retiring more than 3000 internal combustion engine vehicles from its fleet by that year.

“It’s certainly not going to be a simple move, with some of our trucks travelling as far as 300 kilometres in one day, but we’re determined to get to 2030 with a fully electric fleet,” said Spencer Sonn, MD at Woolworths New Zealand.

“We took a lot of learnings from our first five EV trucks and will be working closely with our drivers to ensure our transition is carefully phased over the next seven years and balances practicality with ambition.”