Amazon is deploying nearly 50 new heavy-duty electric trucks across Southern California to haul shipments and customer packages.

It is the company’s largest fleet of these vehicles in any country to date.

The launch is an important step in Amazon’s work towards decarbonising every step across first, middle, and last mile deliveries.

The fully electric trucks will haul cargo containers and customer packages in first- and middle-mile operations, joining the hundreds of last-mile electric vans already delivering packages across the state. Combined, the trucks are expected to travel more than 1.6 million kilometres each year with zero tailpipe emissions.

First mile, or global logistics, is where goods are moved from where they are manufactured, through customs, across oceans, into ports, and then into our fulfilment network.

Amazon’s first-ever electric trucks in its ocean freight operations, also known as drayage trucks, have started hitting the road at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, with a dozen expected by the end of the year. The electric drayage trucks transport containers from the ports to an Amazon facility in Santa Fe Springs, California, where items are prepared for the next leg in their journey—middle mile.

Trucks in middle mile move customer orders between Amazon’s fulfilment centres, sort centres, air facilities, and, finally, delivery stations, where packages are loaded into last-mile vans to be delivered to customer doorsteps. Amazon has deployed 35 electric heavy-duty vehicles in Southern California and have installed more than 45 direct current fast chargers across 11 sites to power the trucks.

“We’re proud to launch our largest fleet of electric heavy-duty vehicles yet in California,” said Udit Madan, vice president of Worldwide Amazon Operations.

“Heavy-duty trucking is a particularly difficult area to decarbonise, which makes us all the more excited to have these vehicles on the road today. We’ll use what we learn from deploying these vehicles as we continue to identify and invest in solutions to reduce emissions in our transportation network, and to impact sustainability in the trucking industry more broadly.”

The battery-electric Class 8 Volvo VNR Electric trucks have a range of up to 442km. The heavy-duty vehicles are also equipped with safety features including active collision mitigation, blind-spot detection, lane departure warning, lane keeping assist, and adaptive cruise control.