SAINSBURY’S latest recruit has sparked into action – Evie, the zero emission electric van is on the roads delivering online grocery orders to customers across central and east London.

Evie is the first of her kind making home deliveries for a UK supermarket, dropping off up to 30 orders a day to customers who have shopped through the retailer’s groceries online website.

The electric vehicle is being trialed to see whether the technology could be an efficient way of delivering groceries to customers in busy cities.

With an expected range of around 80 miles on a single charge and capacity to carry the same weight as a diesel vehicle, the van will be making deliveries across London from Sainsbury’s Online Fulfilment Centre in Bromley-by-Bow and re-charging overnight.

Evie will be joined by Stevie, another electric van in May, who will also take on delivery duties for customers across central and east London. If successful, the duo could be joined by additional electric vans in other areas served by Sainsbury’s Online.

In April 2018, Sainsbury’s became the first UK grocery retailer to deliver online grocery orders via electric cargo bike. A fleet of five bikes, producing zero emissions and no noise pollution delivered up to 100 online orders a day to customers across South London from the Streatham Common store.

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