Britain’s Crown Estate is running an electric truck trial this summer with Swedish startup Volta Trucks to deliver goods to retailers on London’s Regent Street in a bid to improve air quality and congestion in the city centre.
The Crown Estate is one of the West End of London’s largest property owners, spanning 10 million square ft. It comprises Regent Street and around half of St James’s with an offer extending across the workplace, retail, dining, leisure, and residential sectors.
The truck used in the trial is the Volta Zero, the world’s first purpose-built pure electric 16-tonne vehicle designed for inner-city logistics.
Its 95–125-mile range and large 8.6-tonne payload will be used to consolidate deliveries from a single centre just outside London’s congestion charge zone to stores in Regent Street.
The Crown Estates distribution provider Clipper Logistics is running the trial.
Chief executive of Volta Trucks Essa Al-Saleh said: “The full-electric Volta Zero is specifically designed for zero-emission urban distribution with exactly The Crown Estate and Clipper Logistics’ use case in mind. And with 8.6-tonnes of payload, it was created to consolidate deliveries and reduce congestion of smaller vehicles on city centre streets.”
Clipper Logistics has worked with The Crown Estate since 2008 to operate the Regent Street delivery scheme – consolidating multiple individual goods delivery trips inter fewer combined journeys.
Mick Doe, transport operations director at Clipper Logistics, commented: “As a business, we recognise we are high milage road users, but we are committed to reducing unnecessary road miles, and ensuring that what we do accumulate is cleaner.”
“We are delighted to partner with Volta Trucks and The Crown Estate as part of our on-going commitment to improving the Regent Street environment. The partnership demonstrates Clipper’s agility and logistics ability by working to combat congestion and environmental impact in one of the world’s busiest retail areas.”