ASDA welcomes 202 biogas-fuelled trucks to its fleet
UK supermarket giant ASDA is taking delivery of 202 Volvo FH LNG tractor units in the run-up to Christmas.
The order is believed to be the single largest ever placed in the UK for heavy trucks running on renewable fuels.
ASDA has ambitions to transition its core fleet of 1,000 tractor units from diesel to gas by 2024, after in-house trials showed running on biomethane reduced by CO2 emissions by more than 80%.
Sean Clifton, senior manager of national fleets at ASDA, said: “We like to think big, start small, and scale fast – and that’s precisely what we’ve accomplished with this move to biomethane.
“We began with a pair of Volvo FH LNG trial vehicles at our Avonmouth depot in December 2018, which quickly proved to be very capable. A further 49 joined between December 2019 and May 2020, and now this latest order sees an additional 202 Volvos being deployed across five additional sites in our network.”
The bulk of the new trucks will remain in service until January 2026 – 12 months longer than ASDA’s typical replacement cycle for diesel vehicles.
“The higher capital price for gas trucks means it makes sense to run them longer,” said Clifton. “But having put the Volvos through their paces for two years, we have absolute faith in their ability to go the distance – even in our 24/7 operation, where trucks rarely stop.”
The longest run covered by ASDA’s 4x2 trucks is a return trip of 380 miles, which is ‘comfortably achieved’ with a quarter tank of biomethane remaining, according to Volvo Trucks.
The order is believed to be the single largest ever placed in the UK for heavy trucks running on renewable fuels.
ASDA has ambitions to transition its core fleet of 1,000 tractor units from diesel to gas by 2024, after in-house trials showed running on biomethane reduced by CO2 emissions by more than 80%.
Sean Clifton, senior manager of national fleets at ASDA, said: “We like to think big, start small, and scale fast – and that’s precisely what we’ve accomplished with this move to biomethane.
“We began with a pair of Volvo FH LNG trial vehicles at our Avonmouth depot in December 2018, which quickly proved to be very capable. A further 49 joined between December 2019 and May 2020, and now this latest order sees an additional 202 Volvos being deployed across five additional sites in our network.”
The bulk of the new trucks will remain in service until January 2026 – 12 months longer than ASDA’s typical replacement cycle for diesel vehicles.
“The higher capital price for gas trucks means it makes sense to run them longer,” said Clifton. “But having put the Volvos through their paces for two years, we have absolute faith in their ability to go the distance – even in our 24/7 operation, where trucks rarely stop.”
The longest run covered by ASDA’s 4x2 trucks is a return trip of 380 miles, which is ‘comfortably achieved’ with a quarter tank of biomethane remaining, according to Volvo Trucks.
