Electrifying the Last Mile: How Delivery Fleets are Leading in Sustainability

In a world where logistics companies are being driven to reduce their CO2 emissions year by year, electrifying their Last Mile fleets may be one of the easiest ways to reach their targets. ‘Last Mile’ refers to the final step within the shipping process and involves moving a product from a warehouse to its final destination, such as a customer's home or office. Last mile deliveries can often be the most polluting due to many small stops, inefficient city driving due to traffic, and is responsible for an estimated 30% of all greenhouse gas emissions in cities. With the emergence of electrification software and fleet management services, electrification of fleets has never been easier.

There are also multiple cobenefits of electrifying last mile deliveries such as 

• Noise reduction

• Lower operating costs 

• Better air quality in cities

A 2024 study from Dallas, Texas researched how harmful air pollution can be in cities, it estimates that if all last mile delivery trucks were ICE the emissions could cause up to 247 fatalities a year. They also estimated that if 30% of last mile delivery trucks were electrified, fatality rates could be reduced by 24%. This really highlights how harmful emissions are beyond just their effect on our climate.

How Electrification Reduces Emissions

The main way that EVs cut emissions is because of their zero tailpipe emissions - they don't produce any harmful gases from the exhaust, instantly removing a massive urban polluter. One thing that needs to be mentioned is the vehicle needs to be charged, the source of this electricity may still have been generated from fossil fuels. Even with this, it is a massive reduction in pollution throughout the EVs lifetime. EVs produce less than half of the CO2 per KM than a petrol engine (based on an average grid emissions level and equivalent petrol engine) when considering the emissions from Irish electricity generation. These emissions will continue declining as the grid becomes greener with more investments in renewable energy.

Most Common Barriers and Challenges 

The most common barriers for companies to electrify their delivery fleets are, the costs, charging infrastructure and range anxiety. 

• Costs:

  • The initial cost of EVs, especially larger delivery trucks, are more expensive. This can deter many companies from making the initial investment. This however, is not an accurate depiction of the total cost of ownership. EVs are much cheaper to own and run in the long term. You can make massive savings on fuel and maintenance. 

• Charging Infrastructure:

  • The implementation of charging stations for businesses can be another barrier. It takes a lot of planning and high investment to effectively implement charging stations. There are advisory or end to end services which help businesses with every step of implementing a chargepoint. 

  • There are many grants available to help businesses to reduce the initial investment. SEAI has a grant for Irish business owners which covers up to 60% of a charge points installation costs. 

• Range / Downtime Anxiety:  

  • Companies often worry that EVs won’t have the range to complete their routes or that charging equates to downtime. However, this is not the case, there are a plethora of modern Charge Point Management Systems available which take the stress out of charging and allow a fleet to run smoothly. 

Case Study: IKEA

IKEA is a company who has had huge success in electrifying their fleet. To date they have over 2,500 EVs in operation globally. They have also managed to achieve 100% zero emission home delivery across 20 cities, making them one of the leaders of sustainability as they continue to strive for ambitious goals. IKEA has shown the potential of fleet electrification, its scalability and feasibility once the initial barriers are overcome.

Broader Impact:

Companies like IKEA successfully electrifying their fleets not only positively impacts their operations but has a broader impact on the industry and policy. Their success influences other companies to electrify their last mile fleet and sets the golden standard for fleet sustainability without reducing efficiency or profits.

Looking Ahead:

Electrification of last mile delivery is a significant lever to reducing carbon emissions and achieving sustainability goals. It has never been a better time for businesses to invest into EVs, there is so much emerging technology to make the transition easier and it has already been proven to be feasible, scalable and beneficial for your business. At EVE, we provide fleet operators with a simulation and analysis of how to transition their fleet effectively, this allows them to reduce their emissions while keeping their fleet efficient and cost effective.