British supermarket giant Asda has taken delivery of 202 LNG tractor units from Volvo Trucks, in what is believed to be the single largest order ever placed in the UK for heavy trucks running on renewable fuels.
The supermarket 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 CO2 emissions by more than 80%.
Sean Clifton, Senior Manager - National Fleets at Asda, said, “At Asda 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 order comprises 29 4x2s for operation with single-deck trailers, and 173 6x2s which will pull double-decks.
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.
