Coke Canada Bottling purchases Volvo VNR electric trucks

Coca-Cola Canada Bottling Limited (Coke Canada Bottling) is acquiring six Volvo VNR Electric trucks as part of a pilot program to service their ‘Red Fleet’ customer delivery routes throughout the Greater Montreal Area. The six trucks are the first Class 8 battery-electric trucks in the beverage distributor’s fleet of 650 heavy-duty vehicles to service customers throughout the region. All six Volvo VNR Electric trucks will be delivered throughout 2023.

“Our ‘Red Fleet’ is iconic on the roads of our country and, as we strive to become the leading beverage partner in Canada, we’re extremely proud to partner with Volvo Trucks to be the first Canadian food and beverage manufacturer to use battery-electric trucks,” said Todd Parsons, chief executive officer at Coca-Cola Canada Bottling Limited. “The electrification of our fleet is a key component of our plan to reduce direct carbon emissions.”

The 6x4 Volvo VNR Electric trucks will contribute to the company’s goal of reducing carbon emissions from direct sources and supplied energy by 46.2% by 2030. Beyond this, Coke Canada Bottling currently has several light-duty electric service vehicles in the Greater Montreal Area and uses B20 biofuels on all trucks newer than 2012.

The battery-electric fleet features a six-battery configuration that can cover up to 440 km (275 miles) on a single charge, as the trucks make several daily round trips of 150 km (93 miles) from the company’s distribution center in Montreal to customer locations.  

Volvo Trucks hosted a Demo Day on April 13 at Coke Canada Bottling’s Montreal distribution center for delivery drivers to test drive the new battery-electric trucks. Participants learned ways to optimize the Volvo VNR Electric’s range, such as leveraging regenerative braking benefits to add power back to the battery.   

To support charging its battery-electric fleet, Coke Canada Bottling is also installing three 150 kW DC chargers with nine dispensers at its Montreal distribution center. The charging infrastructure is anticipated to be complete in June 2023. 

Coke Canada Bottling utilized federal and provincial incentives (Écocamionnage and the iMHZEV programs) for Heavy-Duty Zero-Emission Vehicles funding to offset the cost of the six Volvo VNR Electric trucks.