Glasgow is electric: Tesco rolls out electric vehicle fleet in COP26 host city

Ben Sillitoe

The UK’s largest retailer, Tesco, has started delivering groceries to Glasgow-based consumers using an electric vehicle fleet.

Coinciding with the last week of the United Nations’ COP26 climate summit, which is taking place in Glasgow, the grocer has launched a 17-strong electric vehicle fleet to distribute online deliveries across the city.

Glasgow is the first city in Scotland to transition to Tesco’s electric delivery fleet, but the supermarket chain is aiming to electrify all its 5,500 home delivery vans across the UK by 2028 as part of wider environmental improvement plans.

Tesco said it has significantly grown its home delivery service across Scotland in the last 18 months during the coronavirus pandemic, and it now delivers to almost 80,000 homes north of the border every week.

Jason Tarry, Tesco UK & Republic of Ireland CEO, said “In this critical decade for climate action, businesses must play a key role in driving transformational change.

“We’re also increasing our use of rail distribution to take more emissions off our roads and helping boost UK’s renewable energy capacity by investing in renewable energy infrastructure, including nine new wind and solar farms across Scotland and throughout the UK.”

Regarding rail freight, Tesco runs five trains per week taking fresh produce from Spain to England. By the end of 2021, a new rail service will run direct from Spain to Scotland as the retailer expands its use of rail freight from 65,000 containers to around 90,000.

Minister for transport, Graeme Dey, said: “Government, individuals and businesses all have a role to play when it comes to taking climate action.

“This is a welcome step from Tesco, looking to secure a lasting legacy from COP26, and good news for customers in Glasgow, where over 3,700 deliveries a week will now be completed using zero emission vehicles – helping to protect our climate and improve air quality.”