Rewe to use seven eActros with the help of Einride

German grocery retailer Rewe is cooperating with the Swedish freight technology company Einride to supply its supermarkets in the Berlin area. It will use a connected fleet of seven Mercedes-Benz eActros 300s.

The seven fully electric trucks will deliver goods to around 306 supermarkets in Berlin and Brandenburg from the logistics centres in Oranienburg and Berlin-Mariendorf. Rewe plans to purchase an additional four electric trucks for its fleet in Oranienburg before the end of the year. The electric trucks will be charged via DC charging at the two logistic centres.

“By using the seven electric trucks, we save up to 189 tonnes of CO2 per year,” says Sven Wallisch, Head of Transport Logistics Region East. The eActros each have a gross vehicle weight of 27 tonnes, room for 18 Euro pallets and, thanks to 336 kWh battery capacity, a range of up to 300 kilometres.

With the procurement and operation of the electric trucks via Einride, Rewe is building on an earlier pilot project. The company participated in a feasibility study in 2021 under the direction of the Fraunhofer ISI on the use of electric trucks for urban logistics. “The study showed that the currently available ranges of battery electric trucks are often sufficient to manage the urban truck tours analysed in the study and almost half of the regional tours”, says Wallisch. “With Einride, we have the right partner to advance electric mobility further.”

According to Rewe, the grocer is conducting various tests with alternative drives this year. Recently, the company tested a Hyundai Xcient Fuel Cell truck at the logistics centre of Rewe Region West in Cologne-Langel.

Einride is a Swedish company striving to use driverless commercial vehicles. It already developed a corresponding concept vehicle called T-Pod. One of the company’s core products is the Saga software platform, which acts as an intelligent operating system for electric (and, in the future, autonomous) vehicle fleets, and charging and connectivity networks. That will enable companies to move goods more environmentally friendly and cost-effectively.

Einride relies on different manufacturers for its electric truck – the company has ordered about 120 Mercedes eActros, 110 e-trucks from Scania and 200 vehicles from BYD. Already-known customers include Oatly, Lidl Sweden and Maersk, Electrolux, brewery AB InBev and PepsiCo.

rewe-group.com (in German)