Brazilian brewery Ambev orders another 1,000 EVs
The Brazilian brewery Ambev has now ordered another 1,000 electric vehicles from the Brazilian manufacturers FNM and Agrale and its associated start-up FNM. The new vehicles will add to the brewery’s growing fleet of electric vehicles.
According to media reports, the newly ordered vehicles will be made up of both electric trucks and delivery vans. The partners are not disclosing the value of the order. According to Reuters, Ambev only says that the project is “economically viable due to the lower energy and maintenance costs”.
The fleet of electric vehicles ordered will be put into operation by logistics companies that make deliveries for the brewery. Charging stations will be available at Ambev’s distribution centres, using solar energy. A first pilot vehicle with a range of 100 kilometres will be used to deliver beverages in Rio de Janeiro.
The Sao Paulo-based brewery plans to convert at least half of its approximately 5,300 trucks to electric vehicles by 2023. In 2018 we reported that for Brauerei Ambev, VW Caminhões e Ônibus will produce 1,600 electric trucks for the brewery in Brazil. Meanwhile, 100 of the 1,600 e-trucks on order to Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus are scheduled to enter service later this year. They will be produced in Resende in the state of Rio de Janeiro.
The Brazilian Agrale Group is a specialist in commercial vehicles, including trucks, tractors and bus chassis. Brazil’s Fábrica Nacional de Motores (FNM) has been reborn with electric trucks powered by batteries from Northern California’s Octillion Power Systems.
The collaboration will produce Class 6 and Class 8 trucks as well as buses and tractors. Founded in 1942, the company, which for years had produced modified trucks and passenger cars for the Italian manufacturer Alfa Romeo, was absorbed into the Iveco Group after that company was taken over by Fiat in 1988.
The start-up FNM (Fábrica Nacional de Mobilidades) – which emerged from an Agrale incubator programme in 2019 and specialises in digital logistics solutions and will provide the software for the vehicles. Among other things, there is talk of an AI system, cameras and an anti-collision system. The motors will be supplied by Danfoss and the batteries by Octillionn, among others.
“The partnerships have resulted in a vehicle with cutting-edge technologies that can now be exported to other countries and other companies,” Rodrigo Figueiredo, vice president of sustainability and supplies at Ambev, told Reuters.
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