Waitrose is to become the first supermarket in the UK to trial EVs with wireless charging capabilities.
From the New Year, groceries from Waitrose’s St Katherine’s Dock store in London will be delivered to customers by electric vans equipped with a charging pad on the underside that tops up by parking above an electric plate.
The technology has been installed by EV technology specialist Flexible Power Systems, which has also equipped the store with a cloud-based smart charging system designed for home delivery.
The trial builds on a deployment with City of Edinburgh Council and Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, funded by the UK Government’s Office for Zero Emission Vehicles through its innovation agency Innovate UK.
Marija Rompani, director of ethics and sustainability at John Lewis Partnership, said: “Before the pandemic, we were taking 60,000 orders a week – we’re now doing well over 200,000 orders.
“That uplift in demand for grocery deliveries means that prioritising an electric fleet is more important than ever, particularly as world leaders meet at COP26 to discuss how we lower global emissions.
“We continue to look for new innovative ways to cut our emissions even further, as well as bring in the latest technology. Being the first to trial this new wireless charging technology is both exciting and another example of our ambition to show leadership in this space.”
The move follows an ambition to end the use of fossil fuels across Waitrose’s entire transport fleet by 2030, which is estimated to save 70,000 tonnes of CO2 every year.
By 2030, Waitrose aims to have electrified all cars, vans and light trucks. For sectors where that is not currently possible, such as long-distance heavy trucks, biomethane will be used.
The supermarket will reportedly reach 340 biomethane trucks in the next few months, and by 2028 all 600 heavy trucks will be running on the renewable natural gas.
Waitrose and Flexible Power Systems have been working together for two years on large scale simulations of EV fleet implementations to understand the impact of different vehicle choices and charger configurations.
“That work has revealed that one-size doesn’t fit all in fleet electrification projects and that a range of operational, site and vehicle requirements need to be balanced to arrive at effective strategies,” said Michael Ayres, managing director, Flexible Power Systems.
“Software tools developed during that programme form the basis of the system being implemented at St Katherine’s Dock over the coming months.
“It differs from conventional smart charging systems in that it is integrated into building energy monitoring and operational software systems.”
