Carrefour with the Largest Alternative Truck Fleet in Europe

The large French retailer Carrefour is ramping up logistics and aims to deploy a total of 1200 biogas trucks by the end of 2022. With this fleet size, Carrefour claims to possess the largest fleet of trucks with alternative drives in Europe. The first CNG trucks from Iveco were acquired as early as 2012.

The French logistics and freight forwarding specialist Jacky Perrenot began using the first CNG trucks in collaboration with vehicle manufacturer Iveco and its customer Carrefour back in 2012. The company is also a pioneer in the field of biogas utilization. Today, the biogas fleet already includes several hundred vehicles that supply Carrefour stores across France in a nearly CO₂-neutral manner. The 600th biogas vehicle, an Iveco S-Way powered by CNG and filled with biogas, has recently entered service.

“With 600 CNG vehicles, we now have the largest French and indeed European fleet of trucks with alternative drives. We are convinced that CNG propulsion is extremely important for our company due to its economic and sustainable role,” says Philippe Givone, Chairman of Jacky Perrenot. “The transition to these biogas vehicles is facilitated by their range, operating costs, refueling times, and driving comfort, as they are comparable to diesel vehicles in these aspects. The proportion of biogas trucks in our fleet continues to increase and is expected to reach around 24 percent by the end of 2025 and even 30 percent by the end of 2030.”

One of the biogas trucks delivering to a Carrefour store in France. © Jacky Perrenot

Completely Moving Away from Diesel

Like the Swiss retailer Lidl Switzerland, which aims to supply all its stores fossil-free by 2030 and is also relying on CNG trucks, delivering to its first store in Bern exclusively with local biogas instead of diesel. The French Carrefour Group also aims to completely move away from diesel. The retailer plans to handle its logistics without diesel by 2030 and therefore intends to increase the number of biogas vehicles with its logistics and freight forwarding providers to 1200 by the end of 2022.

“Biogas has proven to be perfect for our transport organization and allows us to save 100 tons of CO₂ per year per vehicle. Today, we are proud to welcome the 600th biogas-powered vehicle in our fleet. And by utilizing our waste to produce biogas, we are even closing the loop,” explains Thomas Mathieu, CSR Supply Chain Manager at Carrefour, proudly. (October 11, 2021)

Photo: © Iveco / Image Caption (l. to r.) The 600th biogas truck begins its service at the French retail giant Carrefour. Clément Chandon (Iveco Product Director), Philippe Givone (President and CEO of the freight forwarder Jacky Perrenot), Emilio Portillo (Managing Director of Iveco Trucks France), and Thomas Mathieu (CSR Supply Chain Manager at Carrefour) are pleased about this

Text: © www.CNG-Mobility.ch