Walmart has signed an agreement with mobility company, Canoo, to purchase 4,500 electric delivery vehicles.
Starting with the Lifestyle Delivery Vehicle (LDV), which Walmart has an option to purchase up to 10,000 units if required, the US-based retail behemoth is accelerating its investments related to reducing carbon and aiding its net-zero plans.
The electric delivery vehicles will be used to fulfil online orders from 2023, but the companies plan to kick off advanced deliveries in the Dallas-Fort Worth in the coming weeks to refine and finalise vehicle configuration.
Canoo said its LDV is engineered for “high frequency stop-and-go deliveries, and speedy vehicle-to-door drop-off”, including grocery and food/meal delivery.
Tony Aquila, investor, chairman & CEO of Canoo, commented: “Our LDV has the turning radius of a small passenger vehicle on a parking friendly, compact footprint, yet the payload and cargo space of a commercial delivery vehicle.
“This is the winning algorithm to seriously compete in the last-mile delivery race, globally.”
Canoo’s electric delivery vehicles will be driven by Walmart staff, and they have the potential to be used for Walmart GoLocal, the retailer’s delivery-as-a-service business.
David Guggina, senior vice president of innovation & automation at Walmart US, remarked: “Today, the closest Walmart to customers is right in their pockets – it’s the Walmart app.
“By continuing to expand our last-mile delivery fleet in a sustainable way, we’re able to provide customers and Walmart+ members with even more access to same-day deliveries while keeping costs low.”
Canoo anticipates starting production of the LDVs for Walmart at the beginning of the fourth quarter this year.
The work with Canoo represents Walmart’s third large-scale electric delivery vehicles partnership. Walmart reserved 5,000 electric vans from General Motors subsidiary BrightDrop and 1,100 of Ford’s E-Transit vehicles earlier this year.
Read more about Walmart’s sustainability work in Green Retail World
[Image credit: Walmart]
