Swedish flat-pack furniture giant IKEA is proving the doubters wrong in the world’s second largest nation, delivering nearly three-fourths of its home deliveries by EV!
The choice to transition to electric delivery vehicles is often bogged down by talk of high upfront costs and infrastructure hurdles at the conceptual level, but IKEA Canada just delivered a powerful counter-argument against claims that large-scale electrification isn’t practical: this past August, 72% of its home deliveries were completed by EVs, outpacing fossil-fueled trucks for the first time.
Crucially, the company is absorbing the cost of its multi-million-dollar charging infrastructure buildout without passing those costs on to the customer. Instead, IKEA seems content to make that money back on fuel savings, proving again that large-scale, zero-emission last-mile logistics can be both achievable and even affordable for customers.
None of these deliveries would be possible, of course, without serous investment in power. IKEA Canada says it invested $3.75 million to build out a robust charging network at its facilities, supported by $1.175 million in funding from Natural Resources Canada’s Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Program (ZEVIP).
To date, the retailer has installed 90 EV charging ports across all 17 of its home delivery fulfilment units, retail stores and warehouses in Canada, ensuring its electric vehicle fleet starts each day fully charged.
The initiative is also a testament to collaboration with third-party logistics partners who share a vision for cleaner cities. “Our investments in EV charging infrastructure provide our delivery service partners with dedicated, reliable and safe access to power, ensuring they start each day fully charged and ready to deliver,” adds Wilson.
Ikea credits delivery service providers like GoBolt, Metro Supply Chain Logistics, and RXO for helping to make this transition a reality. This partnership model also demonstrates that retailers don’t need to own their entire delivery fleet to decarbonize it; they can leverage specialized partners instead.
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