South African grocery giant Shoprite says it won’t be switching its Checkers Sixty60 delivery fleet to electric vehicles (EVs) in the immediate future.
The retailer told MyBroadband that it trialled electric delivery vehicles between September and November 2023 and found that they were “not yet” a viable option.
Shoprite did not elaborate on what exactly made the EVs unviable.
One possibility is that the cost-effective electric motorcycles currently on the market don’t offer sufficient range for the daily distances that Sixty60’s drivers have to cover.
Another could be the lack of charging infrastructure, or charging speeds not yet being fast enough to top up the motorbikes between trips.
Sixty60 is South Africa’s biggest on-demand grocery delivery service and has seen tremendous growth in the past few years.
A key part of its success has been the ability to get orders out the store and into customers’ hands as quickly as possible.
If drivers were held up by their vehicles needing to charge, it could come at a significant cost to Sixty’s turnaround times.
Another popular on-demand delivery service in South Africa — Uber — began offering a package delivery service with electric motorbikes in December 2023.
Uber is addressing the issues of limited range and charging speeds by using two scooter models with hot-swappable battery packs.
The first variant boasts a 1.5kWh battery with a 90km range and 55km/h top speed. Another option packs a larger 4kWh battery with up to 110km range and a 95km/h maximum speed.
Before a battery runs out of range, Uber Package drivers can stop at a battery locker and swap out their unit for a charged one. Uber said this could be done in less than a minute.
Shoprite rival Spar also has a fleet of 65 EVs delivering products on its rapid online delivery service Spar2U.
The retailer has spent R6.2 million on these vehicles and plans to expand the fleet further.
52 of its delivery EVs are City Buzz 2 scooters with swappable lithium-ion battery packs, which can be charged to full in three hours. On a full charge, the scooters can cover up to 80km.
The remaining vehicles comprise 12 three-wheelers and one City Van. The three-wheeled models
The retailer is considering using a mix of EV types across several services that Spar2U will provide in the future.
Woolworths also added 41 electric vans to its online order delivery fleet in May 2023.
These models have ranges of up to 300km on a charge, more than enough to cover the average 150km to 220km distance covered by Woolies delivery drivers per day.
Checkers started testing a heavy-duty Scania electric truck in November 2022 but has not provided updates about the outcomes of this trial.
Shoprite has invested substantially into equipping its stores and distribution centres with solar power.
As of late 2023, it had enough solar panels to cover 26 soccer fields, enough to power 4,800 homes annually. It has reduced the retailer’s annual grid electricity consumption by 161 million kWh.
With an EV fleet, it could leverage this infrastructure to make significant savings on transport running costs.
In addition to being able to fill up the batteries of an EV fleet with self-generated power, electric models are cheaper to maintain than petrol or diesel-powered equivalents.
Loading ...
Join the conversation Autoload comments
Comments section policy: MyBroadband has a new article comments policy which aims to encourage constructive discussions. To get your comments published, make sure it is civil and adds value to the discussion.