IKEA AUSTRALIA UNVEILS NEW ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Last mile delivery specialist ANC and ORIX Australia, a leasing and fleet management firm, have partnered with IKEA Australia. The partnership was announced at an event held in Sydney late last year, where several of ANC’s newest fleet EVs were also unveiled including a specially-designed e-TukTuk, an Australian first soon to be trialled by IKEA Australia.

Manufactured by BILITI Electric and imported exclusively by Brisbane company EMoS, the e-TukTuks will be used as the latest solution for last mile deliveries in urban environments. IKEA Australia is banking on the e-TukTuks being a game-changing pathway for the take-up of electric vehicles for delivery professionals as it progresses towards its goal of 100 per cent zero-emissions deliveries by 2025.

“There’s a global revolution underway as the last mile delivery sector accelerates fleet electrification,” said ANC CEO Joe Sofra. “EV fleets are a perfect match for our sector. And while they’re still in a nascent stage in Australia, we didn’t want to sit idly by and wait for the perfect economic globally and will launch into the US market in the coming months.

IKEA are evaluating the first two at its Tempe store as part of a three-month trial to prove concept.

ANC now boasts ten EVs in its fleet including vans, trucks and the two TukTuks with firm plans for more.

“The partnership with ORIX aims to improve access to EVs on a capital light basis and demonstrates how the cost of adopting EV versus brown fleets is comparable, with rates more economical than renting a vehicle,” said Sofra “It also shows that the value proposition mimics a fully operable lease, with no maintenance, tyres, or servicing cost to the driver.”

Acknowledging it was still early days for EVs as fleet vehicles, ORIX CEO Reggie Cabal, said despite some challenges, partnering with like-minded organisations would help to overcome barriers and create greener, more sustainable outcomes.

“We are helping remove the complexity for delivery professionals to adopt EVs by aligning vehicles, infrastructure, energy and optimisation into a single, test the operational practicalities of EV and hybrid vehicles in their business operations. Having the right fleet partner working with you to build a costeffective framework simply makes the transition smoother.”

ANC’s own EV journey was driven by its relationship with one of the company’s key customers, IKEA, which has a global goal to provide all its customers with zero-emission deliveries by 2025.

“As a purpose-led business, our ambition is to enable our customers to live better everyday lives within the limits of the planet, which extends to actively reducing emissions across all our operations,” said Mirja Viinanen, IKEA Australia CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer. “IKEA led the way as the first Australian home furnishing retailer to implement home deliveries with electric vehicles. Now, we are striving towards an ambitious goal of 100 per cent zero-emissions delivery by 2025.

“We are committed to this goal and want to bring the retail sector on the journey with us, so we are calling on the government to help us get there